By Porter Lang
Gear first. A billhook, an axe, loppers and a pruning saw. Gardens Illustrated, a gardening magazine, lists a billhook as the traditional tool and says many professionals prefer the Yorkshire pattern. Wikipedia adds that professionals now often use chainsaws on larger stems.
That is the whole kit. The skill is in what you do with it.
What laying means
Wikipedia defines hedgelaying as partly cutting the stems of shrubs or small trees near ground level and bending them, without breaking them, so they regrow from the base into a living stock-proof fence. The Campaign to Protect Rural England, a charity, says it involves partly cutting through the stems of hawthorn and blackthorn and laying them over so new growth comes from the base.
The vocabulary matters if you want to read a description. Wikipedia gives the pleacher as a stem laid down horizontally, with some bark and sapwood left attached to its roots. The stool, also called the stobbin, is the trimmed base where the strongest new growth emerges. Brash is the smaller shoots, partly removed and partly woven between the pleachers.
When
Gardens Illustrated says to lay hedges between October and March, when plants are dormant and birds have finished nesting. Wikipedia’s article does not state a season, so this rests on the magazine alone.
How, step by step
The magazine’s steps run like this. Remove the lower side branches with loppers so light reaches the base. Cut each stem at an angle just above ground level, deep enough to bend it but not all the way through. Lay the stems along the hedge with an upward slant, never fully horizontal, so sap can still rise. Drive upright stakes about 50 centimetres apart, 40 to 50 millimetres thick and about 1.6 metres long. Weave long, thin binders, about 2.5 to 3 metres long and no thicker than about 25 millimetres, around the stake tops. Trim the stumps cleanly. It names hazel and ash as the recommended woods for stakes and binders.
Wikipedia says binders, which it also calls heatherings, are green whips such as birch, ash or willow, and that the stake tops are cut level at the same angle. The National Hedgelaying Society, a trade and craft body, names hazel for binders in the Midland Bullock style. Three sources, three lists of wood, and we do not combine them into one rule.
The styles
The National Hedgelaying Society says its styles were developed to suit local climate, farming practices and hedge species. Each is a livestock barrier, though the strength required varies. Its page describes these, with the measurements it gives:
- Derbyshire: brush faces the livestock side; sawn stakes 24 to 30 inches apart; pleachers woven in front of and behind the stakes, no binders; finished at 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet.
- Devon: laid on top of a bank, which is the main barrier; densely packed brush keeps sheep and lambs in; crooked hazel sticks secure it.
- Dorset: laid on top of a bank and kept low; tightly woven with thin hazel bonds inside and out; a half-barrel shape, 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet high.
- Lancashire and Westmorland: stakes about 18 inches apart on alternate sides, pleachers at about 45 degrees woven round them; at least 3 feet 6 inches high and square cut.
- Midland Bullock: for cattle and horses, which push hard; finished at 4 feet 6 inches; hazel binders along the top.
- North Somerset: stakes placed alternately either side, pleachers held in place, some woven round the stakes.
- South of England: a double brush with one line of stakes down the centre, top bound, both sides trimmed.
- Welsh Border: a double brush, stakes driven at a 35 degree slant, dead wood left to protect regrowth from browsing.
- Yorkshire: a very thin hedge, cut close to the ground, for land where arable rotation is practised; fields are kept free of stock for up to five years so it can regenerate.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England says the Society notes more than 30 regional styles, and that its championships focus on eight of them. Those eight are the Society’s Devon, Dorset, Lancashire and Westmorland, Midland Bullock, North Somerset, South of England, Welsh Border and Yorkshire. Wikipedia’s list of styles overlaps but is not the same: it adds Brecon, Stake and Pleach, Flying Hedge and the Isle of Wight style, which it calls almost extinct, and it gives the counties each covers.
Why bother
Wikipedia gives the purposes: containing livestock without artificial fences, providing wildlife habitat, rejuvenating hedgerows, helping control flooding and soil erosion, and sheltering crops. The Campaign to Protect Rural England says a hedge needs relaying every 15 to 30 years, or it thins out, leaving a gappy line of trees. Wikipedia says a new stem grows from the stool in about eight to fifteen years, after the pleachers die. The two numbers describe different things, and we do not merge them.
On wildlife, the Campaign says the chair of the Devon Hedge Group found 2,070 species in a single Devon hedge, and that Devon has more hedgerows than anywhere else in the UK and a fifth of England’s species-rich hedges.
How old is it
Wikipedia credits Julius Caesar with the first description, in Commentaries on the Gallic War, Book 2, section 27. It says enclosures in England began in the 16th century and spread hedgelaying as a way to contain livestock, and links the 18th-century enclosures to the Devon hedge banks. The Campaign says many Devon hedges date to medieval times or earlier, and that the Wrington and Burrington Hedging Society in North Somerset is one of the oldest in the country. Legend says the North Somerset style began in a contest between three local vicars. We report that as legend.
Dates in order
- Roman period: Caesar’s description, according to Wikipedia.
- 16th century: enclosures begin in England, according to Wikipedia.
- 17th century: the Monschau hedges in the Eifel in use, according to Wikipedia.
- 18th century: enclosures linked to Devon hedge banks, according to Wikipedia.
- 19th century: hawthorn hedges planted in Australia, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
Winter work, according to one magazine; no season, according to the encyclopaedia. Hazel binders in one source, birch, ash or willow in another, hazel and ash in the third. Our reading: the species depend on what grows near the hedge, and a laid hedge is a local answer, not a rule. That is our inference, and the sources do not say it.
What kind of sources these are
The National Hedgelaying Society speaking about its own craft; a rural charity; a gardening magazine; and Wikipedia. We read no farming body and no wildlife trust.
Questions a buyer would ask
Which style is the hedge, and why that style for this land? When was it laid, and what are the stakes and binders made of? Is the work done by hand with a billhook or with a saw? We name no contractor and quote no rates.
What we left out
We left out the petition target for new hedgerow, because it is a campaign aim. We left out training courses and every competition result. We left out any figure for hedgerow lost, since none of our sources gave a total length.
Quick answers
What is hedgelaying? According to Wikipedia, it is partly cutting the stems of shrubs or small trees near ground level and bending them without breaking, so they regrow from the base into a living stock-proof fence.
When should a hedge be laid? Gardens Illustrated magazine says between October and March, when plants are dormant and birds have finished nesting.
How often does a hedge need relaying? The Campaign to Protect Rural England says every 15 to 30 years; otherwise the hedge thins out and leaves a gappy line of trees.
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