Hedgelaying - the Ultimate Bushcraft Activity?

[Janne]

Flayed, butchered, massacred.

We had a bunch of rabbits in one corner, where two hedges came to a T junction.
My first idea was to get rid of them, but after a while I enjoyed watching them too much, so I let them live.
Our cockers loved them too. They developed a technique where one dog chased one towards the other that killed it.

Fascinating to see. Better than watching Attenborough on tv!

Hand on heart, do you really think the vast majority of unemployed would want to do something like this, for a wage higher than minimum wage, and lose the wellfare checks?
Is the moon made of cheese?

 

[Robson Valley]

I admire the efforts to provide refugia for wildlife.

Hedgecraft here opens the line of sight for increased road safety.
A forestry mower on tracks will pulverize an 8' - 10' swath of any wood less than 4" diameters.
Nothing left the size of a chopstick. A larger scale of mowing the lawn.

 

[Woody girl]

Why is the call always get the unemployed to do it? As if they are all a bunch of lazy good for nothings who don't want to work. I did my BTCV stuff while unemployed for a year. No pay. Untill I got a part time job with them. It wasn't a big pay packet and I still had to claim some benefits. But I most certainly did not sit on my butt smoking and drinking all day! Just cos tv shows a few slackers in an effort to shame people like that into work.... which is never going to work... everyone gets tarred with the same brush and it makes me cross. Being unemployed isn't fun! Been there got the t shirt! I'll say no more as I don't want to get into a war of words but actually I find that attitude very hurtful as would the majority of unemployed people.. love grumpy guts.

 

[Toddy]

Well said.

 

[Jared]

Worked on a few hedges. Some were decorative, some on an organic farm, and anther whose purpose was to prevent the public traipsing through an area set aside for wildlife.

Don't agree with forcing the unemployed. In the past was involved in a discussion after being asked by the local council if we were prepared to take people that had to serve community service.
We declined. No one wants to train or educate people that are not interested or keen. And dealing with miscreants could quickly drain enthusiasm.

 

[Nomad64]

The reality is we live in a time when this level of manual effort can only be done on a volunteer basis; it's just too labour intensive to afford (either by our taxes or by landowners).

However, I agree, I lament the sight of flayed hedges; there's something thuggish or yobbish about it - as though there's no care at all.

I’m a bit more optimistic about the future of ŵhedges and hedgelaying.

We seem to have come full circle from the days when the Min of Agriculture paid grants to farmers to grub out hedges - since 1997 it has been an offence to remove most established hedges without plannng permission

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/countryside-hedgerows-regulation-and-management

Funding has been/is(?) available through Glastir/Countryside Stewardship/Rural Payments schemes for planting, restoration and management of hedgerows.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hedgerows-and-boundaries-grant-countryside-stewardship

I did consider applying for the Glastir scheme which would have effectively meant I would be paid to plant and manage new hedgerows and fencing but some of the very strict conditions (entirely understandable) would not have worked for us and instead managed to get 3000 mixed native whips plus some oak standards (enough for 600 metres of linear hedge) from the Woodland Trust under their More Hedges scheme. Not free but heavily subsidised.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/large-scale/

Although the price has gone up a lot since last year the WT Pollinator pack is still good value and most of the species in it are great for establishing short runs of hedges and filling in gaps in old ones.

https://shop.woodlandtrust.org.uk/landowner-packs

Most traditional hedgerow species work well as cuttings and I have a load of guelder rose, wayfarer tree and wild service tree which I have grown from cuttings and hope to plant next winter.

It will be a while before the new hedges I’ve planted will be ready to lay but I will be deploying my new found skills on the rest of my boundary hedges next winter - under the watchful gaze of my neighbour - a former champion hedger and competition judge, so no pressure then!

 

[Toddy]

Seriously, if it could be turned into a sport the same way that the sheep dog trials were televised, I think folks would watch, and appreciate, and value them more.
Have the presenter talk about not just the work, but the trees, their uses, the wildlife that frequents a hedge, etc., the history of the old ones, the holloways and fields that run alongside them, the stock they were meant to keep in or out. The traditional tools, how they were made and where and how they are cared for too.

Lot of skills and information, etc., around hedging

M

 

[GuestD]

An interesting post this. I mentioned in another part on the forum that I had been involved in a project which came under the banner of "Woodlands for Health" which was to encourage people to get involved in the countryside and woodlands. What is most frustrating (for me anyway) is regardless of how many decades of experience you may have, the whole process of the exercise is stifled by bureaucracy. I had to undergo an assessment to gain a certificate in the use of a bowsaw before being allowed to use it, and when I produced my antique hedgebills etc, I was immediately instructed to put them away, and never return with them. Common sense is often the most appropriate qualification in such circumstances. After weeks of subtle cajoling, I was eventually allowed to demonstrate a bit of hedging work, and constructing a simple hurdle, but was forbidden from allowing anyone to join in, as no appropriate health and safety qualification was available.

 

[Toddy]

Hurdle making is one of the 'crafts' we demonstrate when there's a group of us employed to work at countryside type events.
We do take our tools along, and we do use them, but it's a health and safety nightmare because we do hands-on stuff.
So, we prep ahead, and really the public only get to weave the rods into the sails, and our tools are kept on our belts or behind the display stuff that's usually on tables nearby.
Not ideal, but, well, not a lot we can do about it really.

Good on you getting out and doing the Woodlands for Health

M

 

[GuestD]

Good on you getting out and doing the Woodlands for Health

Thanks, I/we always try and make it fun, mostly aimed at conservation, a bit of fire lighting (when conditions allow) for some baked tatties, and a boiling of water for tea and coffee, which is the important bit.

 

[Woody girl]

This health and safety stuff is so over the top. When I worked with BTCV we had to do a tool safety briefing EVERY SINGLE TIME we went out even if it was the same group of people that had been comming for a year. Crazy!

 

[Jared]

Didn't find it that annoying. It's get the morning brew on... and do the whole how to carry stuff, and safe working distances blah blah blah.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

There still exists in Britain (and many other countries), where ‘the poor’ still fall within the perceived ownership (see Poor Laws and Amendments) of ‘the wealthy’ (benefits infer control of those who pay towards them) and that those in receipt of them must be kept working, in order to be considered a viable function of society.
I would say that this ******** (don’t ask) mindset is little different to that which created Workhouses, Western Slavery, The Daily Heil letters page and the extensive abusive outrage and violence inflicted on homeless and poor people by those who delusionally believe they are somehow superior to them.
I have a special list of cruelty and pointless toil that I would have inflicted on anyone who has not themselves had first hand experience of being homeless, penniless or abused because of their state of being but who sits on high like Harry Secombe’s character in ‘Oliver!’ but that’s best left unspoken.
Fortunately I am fortunate and have never lost sight of that fact.

Grrrrrr
!!!


“In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees”

 

[Nomad64]

A few before and during pictures of the hedgelaying course I did above Blagdon reservoir in Somerset a few weeks ago - stupidly, I didn’t take any pictures of the who,e length of the hedge after it had been tidied up.

It looked pretty good considering the badly neglected state it was in before.





For anyone in any doubt about the consequences of repeated mechanical flailing of hedgerows, here are a few pictures from near where I live in Mid-Wales.



It’s not rocket science, if you pollard a tree at 4’ (which is effectively what you are doing with a flail), the regrowth will be at 4’ but the trunk will remain as it was. If you coppice a tree at 4”, the regrowth will be multiple shoots from the base.

If you lay a hedge properly, there will be dense regrowth both at the base and along the pleach and the staked pleach plus any dead material used will provide a stock proof barrier until regrowth is established.

The upper parts of flailed hedges are an OK habitat for some birds but if you can see through the hedge at the base, then it is no use as a stock barrier or as a wildlife habitat or corridor.

If you like being out in the countryside and playing with sharp tools - why not look up you local group and give it a go?

 

[Buckshot]

I've been fortunate enough to enter a couple of hedgelaying competitions with my friend Geoff.
we came second and third respectively (2012 and 2013 i think)
I've had no training at all to lay hedges.
i heard a local woodland charity was holding a competition for novice teams of 2 and we entered.
As you might expect i learned loads and had lots of fun too.
here's us towards the end of both days and about the same time of year. you can see one year was t shirt weather and the other had a bitter wind blowing...
Hedgelaying 2012 012 by Mark Aspell, on Flickr

IMGP0070 by Mark Aspell, on Flickr

I agree if you have the chance to give it a go you really should. great fun and increases understanding of trees and wood etc.

 

[Tengu]

What this needs is automation...something sadly lacking in agriculture.

 

[slowworm]

I did a local course which was very useful. However, it was the Devon style which involves only leaving a foot or so hedge on the top 1/3 of a hedgebank. I have quite a bit of hedge to lay and I'd much prefer to leave a higher hedge but not sure what the purists will think!

 

[Nomad64]

I did a local course which was very useful. However, it was the Devon style which involves only leaving a foot or so hedge on the top 1/3 of a hedgebank. I have quite a bit of hedge to lay and I'd much prefer to leave a higher hedge but not sure what the purists will think!

Brave man!

 

[Erbswurst]

In my opinion it might be a good option to help a farmer with that to get legal access to his property for wild camping, fishing and a static camp.

As you know if you look at my kit recommendations I am a hiking stealth camper who combines trekking with bushcraft according with german and french laws. I love to visit small towns as well when I am hiking.
I am mainly a hiker.

But my brother is a farmer, and I love to help him by planting and cutting hedges, apple trees and berries. I like to give his Land an animal friendly environment back, that looks next to natural conditions.

And of course: If anybody would knock at our door and ask if he might help us from time to time and reserve for himself a little corner where he can build a small shelter and spend a few weekends we would be very glad!
A farmer always has more work than he can manage and a bushcrafter in a corner doesn't disturb him.

If I can tell somebody which dead wood he may use, for a shelter and as fire wood, he cleans up the hedges step by step by using it.

Farmer and bushcrafter can work hand in hand if they follow theyr own interests.

No, you can't come to me for your weekends! We own the land in eastern Germany, and there isn't an airport next to us!

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

My friend from North Yorkshire is a hedgelayer and makes stone walls too. I watched him work and had a small go too. He's handy with axes and the other cutting tools he uses. Pretty good with chainsaw too, Not sure he'd build a cabin too good =-but he's handy around camp with anything sharp when he's been with us. we don't do anything like this up here so maybe that makes us no good at what you call bushcraft. The first time he came out with us we watched him closely as wondered whether he would be any good with knives or tools as i would not trust all visitors we sometimes get. He turned out real good and handy.