Happy to still climb trees at age of 65

It’s a great British rural practice, with centuries of heritage behind it. Chris Berry speaks to a hedge layer with a championship pedigree.
Philip RowellPhilip Rowell
Philip Rowell

Hacking away with an axe on the Wentworth Estate, near Rotherham, is champion hedge layer Philip Rowell.

Autumn is traditionally known as hedge-laying season and he’s not actually chopping down a tree, merely nicking it so that it can be bent from its current vertical position. To the uninitiated his hacking looks like a harsh and unreserved attack on a field maple tree. He’s used to criticism from those who don’t understand.

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“I have arguments with ‘tree huggers’ who see me at work and tell me off for killing the trees, but that’s not the case at all. In fact, one of the joys I have is seeing it rejuvenated in the spring. When I cut it I don’t go through the cambium, the part under the bark that is responsible for the secondary growth of stems and roots, and that’s the key.

“The cut is a wound and it heals up as a scar would on your body. It is far from dying as a result of what I do. Its fresh growth then goes through the full system of setting its flower and the berry.”

Philip’s current task is to complete the 230-yard stretch he’s working on at what he hopes to be a rate of around 10-15 yards a day. He’s looking at being here for at least another two weeks but the weather can make a big difference. This particular stretch is more a case of major surgery than a check-up and tend.

Philip switched careers from being a motor mechanic 15 years ago after starting out as a volunteer with Doncaster Council as a countryside ranger. He laughs at the thought of his colleagues in the HGV industry seeing him working outside every day. It’s not something he enjoyed previously.

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“I used to refuse to work outside but I do remember changing a stub axle up on the road to Manchester in two feet of snow. If some of my gaffers back then saw me now they wouldn’t think it would be me, but my loves have always included the countryside and walking. This is the kind of occupation you either like or you don’t – there’s no in between – and I happened to fall in love with it.

“I can’t tell you what my wife thought when I told her I was switching from being a mechanic to a hedge layer but she has always been very supportive. I also do fencing, drystone walling and a bit of tree surgery. I’m still climbing trees at 65.”

The trees Philip is working on at present include a number of indigenous species such as ash, hawthorn, maple and oak that he is concerned about maintaining.

“We are gradually losing the indigenous species so I try my best to keep them. When the Enclosures Acts were passed in the 1800s there was so little time to mark out the boundaries and not enough of our own trees so we started importing from Italy.”

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Philip expresses his concern for the future of hawthorn because of its comparatively slower growth against others. He is also staunch in his support of the hawthorn as being a tree rather than as a shrub as some think of it.

Philip has been crowned champion hedge layer in each of Yorkshire, County Durham and the Borders competitions over the years and is currently treasurer of the National Hedgelaying Society.

He runs three courses a year on the art of hedge-laying but very few take it up afterwards. “I’d say maybe about one per cent actually come back to it. They soon see how hard it is and in a way it’s a compliment.”

Philip’s next training course is on November 23 and 24. You can contact him via email: [email protected]