Watch how your Hedge groWs Graham Downing watches the experts at the National Hedgelaying Championships and has a tip of his own to offer. Photographs by Laurence Squire magIne that you have been para- and geology, so do the ways in which fields are where we cut the stakes at a 45 degree angle Heather Swift (below left) lays in the Lancs & fenced and hedgerows cut and laid. with the ditch on the nearside, if your horse Westmorland style. A sharp axe (above) helps. chuted into the english countryside Midland style competition length (right) from some distant planet. How do you “There are about 35 different styles, dif- didn’t get high enough, then you slid over and establish exactly where you are? ferent families of styles and even styles par- didn’t stake your horse. It’s all about hunting, simple. Walk over to a newly cut-and- ticular to individual estates,” according to without a shadow of a doubt,” says dale. regenerating shoots. a further feature is that Ilaid hedge. If it is 4ft 6in high, with hazel stakes robin dale, chairman of the national Hedge- sporting estates and hunts kept the skills of the stakes are set at an angle to ensure that and woven hazel binders along the top, then laying society (nHLs). “The radius that hedgelaying going during the last war and up rainwater running down them is kept away you are in midlands foxhunting country. If the until the mid seventies, during a time when from the stools so that they will not rot. stakes are of sawn timber and there are no ‘There are about 35 the richness and diversity of our countryside In complete contrast is the Lancashire and binders, then you are in derbyshire. If the was under huge pressure from the economics Westmorland style, in which the pleachers are sawn stakes are 18in apart on alternate sides of different styles, families of agricultural change. nowadays, however, simply pushed over at an angle of 45 degrees the hedge and the pleachers are laid at 45 of styles and even styles hedgelaying is undergoing a renaissance, both between a double row of stakes. “It’s very degrees, then your most probable location is in for wildlife conservation reasons and simply quick and practical, and the farmers up in Lancashire or Westmorland. If the hedge is on particular to estates’ because landowners are once more appreciat- Cumbria and on the fells can lay up to 100yd a top of a bank and the binders are secured with ing the pure aesthetics of a beautifully cut- day,” south of england intermediate judge crooked hazel sticks, you are in devon, while if and-laid hedge. The present guardian of the dave sands told me. “It doesn’t have any bind- the hedge is narrow and finished with sawn different hedgelayers worked in the past rich diversity of regional styles is the nHLs ing in the top, but the stakes hold it from pop- stakes and rails, you have landed in Yorkshire. would have been no more than five miles. and there is nowhere better to appreciate and ping out the sides until the new growth comes Just as our native livestock breeds were each would have his own style and someone understand the finer points of that diversity through the bottom.” developed to suit local conditions of soil and else would have another way of doing things. than at the society’s annual championships, and regeneration, of course, is the whole climate, and vernacular building styles vary even the designs of axes and billhooks would which in 2011 were held at arlingham, object of hedgelaying. If it is unmanaged over a from district to district according to landscape be different, because the blacksmith was gloucestershire and at which, appropriately, long period, a hedge will attempt to grow into a making that billhook for there was a meet of the Berkeley Hunt. line of trees, with nothing at the bottom to con- that man. You weren’t Undoubtedly, the classic cut-and-laid tain livestock or, for that matter, to provide going to be influenced by hedge is the midland style, which was devel- shelter for game and wildlife. even if it is someone on the other oped for farms with large animals where the trimmed mechanically, after a few decades the side of the country, and hedges needed to be able to withstand the plants will degenerate and start to die back. that’s how regional differ- weight of a heavy beast pushing against them. The process of hedgelaying, in which the living ences came into being.” The stems are “pleached” or cut half through, stems are pleached and pushed down to the Foxhunting was one of turned almost horizontal to the ground and ground, initiates a burst of new growth. Fresh the main factors behind held in place with a row of stakes 18in apart. shoots emerge from the partially severed the development of hedge- Finished to a height of 4ft 6in, the hedge is stools and drive upwards between the tightly laying. The craft not only topped off with a continuous line of hazel compacted old stems and the cycle of growth created a stockproof fence binders. “When we’ve finished, you’ll see that starts once more. capable of containing bul- it is a living stockproof barrier,” commented The clean, tidy lines of a newly laid hedge locks, which might weigh nigel adams, a competitor in the midland may only last for two or three seasons until the a ton apiece before being open class and nHLs spokesman. “Before new growth gets away, but by then the hedge- sold in melton market, but wire fences were invented, this is how we kept layer has fulfilled his objective by maintaining it also produced a chal- animals in and out of fields.a ll the brush is a secure barrier to livestock and protecting the lenging though uniformly turned towards the side where the stock are, hedge stools from browsing. When it has contoured obstacle for the while in the old days the field on the clean side reached an appropriate height, the new growth horseman. “The binders would go into a crop rotation.” can be managed mechanically with a conven- are on the top of the hedge on the Welsh borders, hedges are designed tional hedge trimmer, the height being raised to keep the hedge down, to contain sheep rather than strong cattle, so every few years to allow the top to thicken out. but they also gave you a the finished hedge is packed with dead wood Then after 15 or 20 years, when it has grown to precise take-off line. and to prevent the sheep nibbling away at the 10ft-12ft, the hedge can be relaid. 74 www.thefield.co.uk www.thefield.co.uk 75 Top to bottom left: Jasper Prachek works in the where the hedges concerned are an important Blackthorn is good for wildlife but can If you want a new hedge to get away quickly Derbyshire style; John Savings in the South of visual feature in the landscape or are valuable spread out of the hedge if not managed. maple then I can add a further tip. Having planted England style; Midland-style stockproofing from a sporting perspective. newly planted provides nice autumn colour but really wants your new whips, cut them off with a pair of hedges will generally become suitable for to be a tree and can dominate, while some secateurs at an angle just 4in above ground much of the secret of laying a hedge to the laying after around 12 to 15 years of growth, hedgelayers don’t like dogwood because it is level, roll black plastic sheeting over the hedge exhibition standard required in the national depending, of course, on the soil they are line so that the sharp points push through, championships is in cleaning it of all extra- growing in. If planting a hedge with trad- Hedges can be an then enclose the hedge in a double rabbit neous matter and retaining useful cuttings to itional cutting and laying in mind, some spe- fence. The plastic will suppress weed growth insert into gaps. John savings lays hedges in cies might be more appropriate than others. important visual feature and warm the soil quickly in spring. It will also the south of england style and taught HrH “The best advice when planting hedges is to and valuable from a ensure that each plant sends up a series of the Prince of Wales who, he says, is a very look around one’s own area,” says adams. new leaders thereby creating a thick, bushy good hedgelayer. as soon as he gets going on “That way, you can see what grows best in that sporting perspective bottom. I have a kilometre of hedge which I his 10yd competition length, which must be soil. most of the midlands were planted with planted in this way in 2004. It is now 8ft to completed within five hours, he is busy with a only hawthorn during the enclosures, but if 10ft high and will be ready for laying within rake, pulling out dead grass and ripping down you want to offer wildlife a few other species, liable to snap rather than bend. It does provide five or six years, although I haven’t as yet briars and brambles. “I work on cleaning it as then hazel and blackthorn are the most popu- attractive colour in autumn, though. decided in which regional style. Whichever I I go along, untangling it and keeping every bit lar.