Disappearing Hedgerows
Amazingly we are still losing our hedgerows, according to a report from the Campaign for Rural England (CPRE). "Amazingly" because I thought they were so well protected by legislation and because people understand how important they are, both historically and environmentally. The CPRE report restates the case again for hedgerows, and calls for more specific regulation and continuing funding to protect them. All power to them.
Forget their environmental value for a moment; like meadows, many hedges are ancient monuments. In Devon nearly a quarter of hedges are over 800 years old, and some are based on Bronze Age banks. They should enjoy the equivalent of Grade 1 listed building status. Unlike the period 1950 to 1975, when many were ripped out, the more recent problem has been neglect. According to the report, from 1998-2007 the km of "trees/shrubs/relict hedge (and fence)" has increased while the km of hedge has decreased by 6.1%. This is an important distinction. Unmanaged hedges turn into lines of trees and shrubs, which have less and less value and eventually disappear. Alternatively, single lines of plants are often mercilessly flailed, and end up looking like stumpy toothbrushes. These are no more hedges than the X Factor is opera.
We've restored the hedges here, which had become very X Factor. My educated guess is that they date back to the Middle Ages, but they had recently suffered from being choked with dead elms and having been left to grow out. Their ditches were filled up and sheep and cows had wandered through them. We've cleared the ditches and laid most of them over the last few years, replanting the gaps with a British grown and appropriate mix of native hedgerow plants. Hedge laying is not only a brilliant way of creating a lovely thick hedge, with all the attendant benefits that brings, but it's genuinely good fun to learn and can be a great art. One of the charities we support is the National Hedgelayers' Association, which might seem an esoteric choice, but it reflects our reckoning of the importance of hedges in our landscape.
You wouldn't believe the difference it has made. Newly laid hedges look like they'll take years to recover, especially given the local style is pretty aggressive, but we now have the most beautiful thick hedges. I cut them carefully by hand too, which means the boon to wildlife is tremendous and that us humans get to see everything in flower. As the report points out, managed hedgerows are very important habitats for a variety of birds and mammals in particular, and even I - no great twitcher - can see the difference in the volume and species of birds we now have.
We've restored the hedges here, which had become very X Factor. My educated guess is that they date back to the Middle Ages, but they had recently suffered from being choked with dead elms and having been left to grow out. Their ditches were filled up and sheep and cows had wandered through them. We've cleared the ditches and laid most of them over the last few years, replanting the gaps with a British grown and appropriate mix of native hedgerow plants. Hedge laying is not only a brilliant way of creating a lovely thick hedge, with all the attendant benefits that brings, but it's genuinely good fun to learn and can be a great art. One of the charities we support is the National Hedgelayers' Association, which might seem an esoteric choice, but it reflects our reckoning of the importance of hedges in our landscape.
You wouldn't believe the difference it has made. Newly laid hedges look like they'll take years to recover, especially given the local style is pretty aggressive, but we now have the most beautiful thick hedges. I cut them carefully by hand too, which means the boon to wildlife is tremendous and that us humans get to see everything in flower. As the report points out, managed hedgerows are very important habitats for a variety of birds and mammals in particular, and even I - no great twitcher - can see the difference in the volume and species of birds we now have.