Laying Centenary & South Hedges 1999 (photos)
Laying Centenary & South Hedges 1999 (photos)
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Work begins on Centenary Hedge and, in the distance, part of South Hedge (November 1999).
Although carrying two names, this is in reality a single stretch of hedgerow, mainly consisting of Hazel. The reserve map (here) makes this clear.
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Thinning out. The view from the other side, a few minutes later.
This hedger has a good supply of stakes with him. Later, he will drive them vertically into the ground along the hedgerow to support the 'pleachers', the slanted growing stems that will remain.
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Getting down to the pleachers. The hedger cuts through the stem just above the ground, until only about a third of the original thickness remains. He then bends it over, away from the cut, securing it in place later.
New growth will appear along the bent-over stem and at ground level, making a thick new hedge from bottom to top.
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An annual short back and sides with a flail cutter cannot provide this. It instead produces a characteristic leggy growth, with ever-widening gaps below the shrubby top of the hedge. See here for an example in this hedge and here for an even worse one, in another hedge on the reserve.
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'Heathering' or 'ethering' - weaving branches between the stakes to bind them and the pleachers into a tight structure.
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In this Breughel-like picture by Anne Richards, you can see volunteers clearing away and burning 'brash', the trimmings from the hedges.
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Normally, one tries to reuse brash, either as temporary fencing (making a 'dead' hedge) or by putting it through a chipper to make mulch. There was too much of it for either that day.
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Tidying up a few straggly bits.
This part of the hedge belongs to Beacon Field, part of Centenary Fields, where the brash was being burnt. As is the usual convention, the ditch next to the hedge forms the outer boundary of the field to which both belong.
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We've earned this!
Members of The South of England Hedgelaying Society stop for a cuppa.
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The finished hedge. It is laid uphill, so that the pleachers don't have to be bent over so far.
Under the old three-field agricultural system, it would be two years before animals were put in the fields adjoining a newly-laid fence. In that time it would have put on enough growth to make a firm and long-lasting stockproof barrier. It will be ten to fifteen years before this fence needs laying again.
And here it is from the other end. A beautiful and impressive piece of work.
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