The charcoal burners that feature in the Swallows and Amazons series are father and son, Old Billy and Young Billy (the Billies). They work in the traditional Cumbrian industry, charcoal burning, where they burn wood very slowly, under a mound of turf, in order to produce charcoal. They live a nomadic existence in huts in the woods, moving to different sites around the Lake. Old Billy says While we're burning .... Someone has to be with the fire night and day, to keep him down like (SA12).