Devon Hedges and Their History in the Landscape
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Devon hedges and their history in the landscape Iron Age field patterns at Deckler’s Cliff, Prawle. ©Robert Wolton Hedges a re o ne o f t he m ost s ignificant elements in the Devon landscape, Stoke Rivers prehistoric settlement. Extant hedges contributing to the present day beauty and may incorporate much older features such as the bank in the south-eastern quadrant of this prehistoric sense of place, and forming a living part of enclosure. The rest of the enclosure boundary is visible its history. As a human creation, the pattern as an earthwork, though much reduced by ploughing. and form of Devon's hedges record the A medieval road has later been built across the enclosure. ©Devon County Council development of its unique rural landscape. Ancient hedges Devon contains many of the oldest hedges in the country. Widespread and early field Some Devon hedges incorporate earthworks enclosure during the Middle Ages (AD 1250 - that were already old by the time they were 1450) means that as many as three-quarters integrated into a field, such as at Stoke of existing hedges could be of medieval Rivers, north Devon (above). They can origin. Many have since been modified, include the former ramparts of Iron Age hill others entirely lost, but the “mighty great forts (c. 700 BC - AD 50), for example at hedges” observed by John Hooker in AD Stockland Little Camp, east Devon. Even 1599 have essentially remained, to become earlier settlement enclosures or field a symbol of Devon's enduring appeal, as well boundaries, like coaxial field systems on as a living connection with its past. Dartmoor, can date back over 4,000 years to the Bronze Age or Neolithic period. Other From Bronze Age reaves to Medieval strip prehistoric hedges preserve ancient land fields, Devon has a wealth of divisions, for instance the Dartmoor reaves archaeologically important hedges, most still (systems of long parallel boundary banks) in farming use today. Older hedges can hold are known to date from the Middle Bronze important evidence for the archaeologist: in Age (c.1400 - 1000 BC) and many are still particular buried soil preserved beneath the part of present-day field boundaries. earth bank may provide a time capsule of fossil pollen which can be scientifically dated Haga, the Old English word for a hedge or to the origin of the hedge or reconstructed to fence, is first documented in Anglo-Saxon form an historic snapshot of local vegetation. charters. In Devon, these legal documents often describe the boundaries of manorial This section provides a brief history of estates. The latter sometimes survive as hedges in the Devon landscape and outlines parish boundaries and are among the oldest some of the sources of information which hedges in the county. With limited historical can be used in studying them. and archaeological evidence from the later 1 Anglo-Saxon period (AD 800 - 1066) in A distinctive part of south-western farming Devon, it is difficult to know how widespread was the early enclosure, before about hedges were, but the typical landscape of AD 1250, of open strips to produce long, dispersed farms, embanked roads and narrow enclosures, for example at manorial estates is thought to have emerged Sheepwash (below). In other areas, identified at this time. by Rackham (1986) as 'planned countryside', common open fields persisted far longer. Turner (2007) suggests that some boundary Turner (2007) writes that on average the hedges mentioned in charters from Devon enclosed strip field was only 30 m wide by may have marked the outer boundary of 140 - 200 m long. Such fields were once open strip fields. These were large, widespread across Devon, but most have cultivated fields with communally-farmed been altered or lost. Many hedges, however, open strips - a rare example of open strip still have the distinctive curvilinear form of an farming still survives today at Braunton Great open strip, indicating their medieval origin. Field, north Devon. Recent pollen research Other medieval enclosures have very by Fyfe (2006) has found that cereal irregular hedges, which may have developed production especially increased significantly piecemeal over time, kinks, for example, in lowland Devon at this time. As the narrow arising through woodland clearance or hedge strips were ploughed over time they took on or settlement loss. a characteristic curve at one end, where the oxen were turned. A 'reverse-S' pattern often In a more recent history of Devon husbandry, developed when ploughed in both Stanes (2008) suggests that enclosure of directions. fields with hedges would have been considered progressive husbandry by Medieval enclosure medieval landlords. Though an initially arduous task, hedge creation allowed better The celebrated Devon historian Professor selective breeding and disease control for W.G. Hoskins (1954) suggested that the stock than was possible on common land. period between AD 1150 and 1350 was one Hedges had other important benefits, of great colonisation of the Devon including the regular production of wood fuel, countryside and it was when the and different species of tree and shrub were characteristic landscape was born: “the grown for tool-making, hurdles and a lanes, the small irregular fields, the great multitude of other everyday uses. hedgebanks…”. Medieval strip fields at Sheepwash, Devon. ©Robert Wolton 2 Field patterns at Stockland, East Devon. In the foreground, the irregular fields are of medieval or earlier date. In the upper part of the photograph, the very regular field patterns show parliamentary enclosure on Stockland Hill, which took place as recently as AD 1860. Before then, the higher ground on this Greensand ridge was open rough ground. ©S.Turner Hedges were valuable, managed, assets in AD 1645, Oliver Cromwell was heard to and part of a distinctive south-western declare “I have been in all the counties of farming now known as ‘convertible England and the Devonshire husbandry is husbandry’. Within this, the hedge was part the best”. The Devon hedge was an of a 10 - 20 year cycle of alternating pasture important part of this distinctive farming. and cultivation. Hedge laying or coppicing was often followed by cultivation of the Historical documents from this time provide adjacent fields. After a few seasons the crop some insight into the construction of Devon yield declined and the field reverted to a hedges. For example, records of Tavistock grazed pasture, by which time the renewed Abbey (Finberg 1951) indicate that in hedge had grown to provide adequate shade AD 1465 the granting of a farm lease and shelter for stock, as well as a barrier of specified the construction of a ditch four feet thick shrubs. wide and deep, the earth being piled up into a bank and planted with hawthorn and Further agricultural improvements from the coppice wood. Devon hedges could be a fifteenth century onwards, especially by formidable barrier to stock. Marshall (writing richer estates, led to the regularisation of in AD 1796) describes a typical hedge in many small medieval enclosures into larger west Devon as “a mound of earth, eight… 'barton' fields. Soil fertility was also improved ten… feet wide at the base…and nearly as by spreading Devon marl (alkaline clay) and much in height… It is covered in coppice sea sand. Large-scale sheep farming woods… which are cut at fifteen or twenty satisfied the high demand for wool and the years growth, and… together with the bank, increasing importance of cloth production form a barrier more than thirty feet high”. and its export contributed to the wealth of the “Hedgewood”, he further notes, “is looked county. Stanes (2008) records that on a visit up to as a crop and is profitable as such”. 3 Parliamentary enclosure Earlier records survive occasionally in Anglo- Saxon charters, glebe terriers (church land The Parliamentary Enclosure Acts of the inventories) and old estate maps. The last eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which can include detailed records of hedged did so much to change the face of the landscapes, such as the Calmady maps English countryside had a lesser effect on (AD 1788 - 1789) of the Langdon and Down Devon. Hoskins (1954) notes that “there are Thomas estate in south Devon (overleaf). no parliamentary acts for the enclosure of Many of these historical documents are open fields in Devon, but there are 71 available to view at the Devon Heritage awards among the county records dealing Centre in Exeter. Finally, comparison of with wastes and commons”. Between modern records with earlier Ordnance AD 1802 and 1874 many of the moors and Survey maps and aerial photographs shows heaths of the Blackdown Hills and Haldon how field patterns have continued to evolve Hills, amongst others, were enclosed. The to the present day. new, large rectangular fields were very noticeable in the landscape, for example on Historic Landscape Characterisation Stockland Hill (previous page), and the hedges were often planted with a single (HLC) shrub species such as beech. Hedges are an important component of the historic landscape. In 2005 Devon County In the mid-nineteenth century, the sum total Council (supported by English Heritage) of hedges in Devon was thought to be undertook a countywide mapping project to between 50,000 and 60,000 miles (80,000 characterise historic elements in today's and 96,000 km). Rackham (1986) landscape, using old Ordnance Survey suggested that after around AD 1870 maps, aerial photographs and County there was little change in hedge numbers Historic Environment Record (HER) sources. across the country until the end of World The Devon Historic Landscape War II. However, recent historic landscape Characterisation (HLC) mapping was study in Devon (Turner 2007) has shown completed by Sam Turner in 2005 and can that there was already moderate hedge be viewed online at removal by 1945 and this accelerated after www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment the war with farm mechanisation and The findings of HLC were later developed in modern food production.