Laying Cobham Hedge 2002 (photos)
Laying Cobham Hedge 2002 (photos)
In November 2002, our friends from the South of England Hedgelaying Society again turned out to do some hedge work. This time it was on Cobham Hedge, which runs along the eastern boundary of Bloomer's Field. The reserve map shows where it is.
This hedge consists mainly of Hawthorn, traditionally used to make a stockproof living barrier. Even the tree's name points to this use. It comes from the Old English hagþorn, meaning 'hedgethorn'. (Centenary and South Hedge, which the Society had laid in their previous visit, is mostly Hazel.)
Cobham Hedge probably dates from the time of the Parliamentary Enclosures. The enclosure of Lingfield Common started in 1809.
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Helping others to help you.
Here is the 'orders of the day' board for our volunteers. On this we set out what needs doing and where, and who the field leader is for each area. They all wear an identifying jacket or tabard.
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On the lower right of the board we give advice on carrying out some of the tasks that people have volunteered for. Helping with the hedgelaying was just one of the activities open to them that day.
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Everyone and their dog turned out.
You can see the height the hedge had reached before it was cut.
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How the hedge looked after an initial lateral trim.
These hedgerow shrubs have developed thick, 'leggy' stems and a stag-headed appearance. This is the result of repeated annual pollarding with a flail cutter.
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The wide gaps between stems made this section of hedge useless on its own as a barrier to stock. Barbed wire, which the hedgers had to remove, was used to bridge the gaps.
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Another consequence was that cutting the pleachers became trickier than with slimmer plants. The pleachers are the growing stems, which are set on the slant in the finished hedge.
Compare what these hedgers are having to do with what was needed on their previous visit (see here).
Note also the tools these men have with them. Their position echoes that in Stanley Anderson's engraving, shown here.
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One enterprising hedger brought along a selection of secondhand tools to sell.
Those on the table are billhooks, with a couple of sharpening stones nearest the camera.
Apart from the two axes at the front, the tools on the car bonnet are slashers. Hedgers use these to remove 'brash' - surplus twigs and small branches.
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Phil Strugnell leads the brash clearing. Phil is chairman of the South of England Hedgelaying Society. (Photograph by Graham Marks.)
As before, we had no real choice but to burn this. There was so much of it we had to finish the job days later.
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Here is what you get from all that skill, sweat and smoke.
We now have a handsome and stockproof living fence. This should keep out the next-door farmer's cattle when he turns them out into the field on the right.
The hedge will not need further attention for many years.
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There are, admittedly, some short-term drawbacks with hedgelaying. Birds have fewer nesting places and there is less shelter from the wind. Both problems will solve themselves over the next couple of years.
Meanwhile, invertebrates will multiply on the new green shoots that will appear everywhere the next spring, to their own benefit and that of the creatures that feed on them. The environment soon goes back into profit.
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Looking southwards, towards the Scout hall. Unlike the rest of the hedge, this is section is Blackthorn.
Phil Strugnell had coppiced this stretch six years previously (see here). You can tell how high it has grown since then from the thicket behind it.
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And stay there!
Our guest of honour, Professor Grenville Lucas, takes the measure of a Field Maple (Acer campestre). He has just planted it, to commemorate our becoming a Local Nature Reserve (LNR).
Gren is on the national council of English Nature, which runs the LNR scheme.
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