Richard’s new contribution to our hedge fund

Hedgerows are one of the most distinctive and loved features of Britain’s countryside, and after years of them being grubbed out at an alarming rate many new ones are now being planted.

It’s a task, working across a field or around woodland that might seem like lonesome work, Richard Finley says that’s usually not the case.

“There’s often a robin to keep me company, following me as I work and getting right close to me whenever there’s something I’ve disturbed that it wants to eat. They’re the hedge-layer’s best friend, robins.”

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Richard speaks while taking a rest from laying a new hedge in Yorkshire. It is a dying rural craft, he says, and the regional differences in hedges that were once almost like the signature of a county these days are harder to find.

“Traditionally, what happened was that the type of hedge you laid depended on the sort of farmland you had.

In places like Derbyshire and Leceistershire, big dairy cattle areas and arable areas, they have hedges that are stronger and thicker with ‘brash’ on one side that had a cornfield, and the hedges are laid tightly at an angle on the other side where cows were grazing. That’s how it used to work.

“But in Yorkshire, the traditional hedge didn’t need to be so strong because sheep didn’t try to pick at it like cattle do.”

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Other hedges are laid in such a way that they can withstand hard weather. On the Solway Firth, between Scotland and England, hedge-layers build long banks of soil and make the stems grow out of the sides to make the hedge more robust.

Through the winter, Richard has been laying a new hedge at Eccup Reservoir, to the north of Leeds.

He is working primarily with hawthorn and blackthorn.

To begin with, he makes an incision low down in the horizontal stems, using a small handsaw or chainsaw. Then he bends over the stem and splits each one as close to the root as possible, using a 50-year-old steel billhook.

This is a cross between an axe and a machete that is the hedge-layer’s traditional tool.

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The billhook’s straight edge is called a “lay” and is used for splitting the stem, the leverage supplied by the tool’s ash stock.

The other side is called the “trim-off” which, has the name suggests, is for cleaning the brash or small twigs.

“By splitting the stem to the root and bending it over you are effectively creating two plants.

“The timber stakes we put in are there to hold everything in place. Eventually the stakes will rot and after five years you won’t see them any more.

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“Everything grows up around them and you’re left with a perfect stock-proof barrier.”

The hedge he is laying is rather different to Richard’s normal commissions, because this one’s function is not to keep livestock or people away from crops, but to create a screen around part of Eccup Reservoir so that wild ducks are not disturbed by visitors.

Eccup is owned by Yorkshire Water and supplies the taps of Leeds as well as the wider region through the water grid system.

It is also designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of its large populations of wintering ducks which include wigeon, teal, pochard and goldeneye.

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The most significant species found at Eccup is the goosander, a large diving duck with a serrated bill. In winter, the reservoir’s surface has a roost of an estimated two per cent of the entire British population, the fourth largest in the country. It is considered West Yorkshire’s most important area open water for wildlife.

But being so close to Leeds – it’s just a few minutes’ stroll from the suburb of Alwoodley and around 1,000 yards from several city centre bus routes – means that it is popular with walkers, joggers and birdwatchers. Despite being on the doorstep of several hundred thousand people, it manages to keep a rural atmosphere, with just the faint rumble of traffic in the distance.

Many visitors use a path from Alwoodley Lane round the south-eastern shore of the reservoir, and it is along this stretch that Richard has been laying his hedge.

Geoff Lomas, Yorkshire Water’s recreation and catchment manager, says that the two-kilometre hedge – “let’s call it a strong mile” – was considered the best option for reducing disturbance for the wildfowl. It is costing £60,000.

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A fence almost as high as tennis court netting has been torn down and replaced by a lower, better-made fence on the reservoir side of that the hedge has been created to provide the green screen.

“The hedge itself is not merely a barrier but a wildlife habitat in its own right, providing birds, butterflies and insects with food and shelter, and excellent nesting sites in spring.

“We didn’t want to have an open view all the way around the reservoir path so that people could see birds the whole time. We needed to provide some protection from disturbance from the birds.

“That’s why this hedge is so important. So what we’ve also done is left some lower sections to provide good birdwatching and vista points.”

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Hedge-laying is one of the oldest rural crafts in Britain. The earliest hedgerows were used by Neolithic farmers to keep crops and livestock separate on the Continent more than 4,000 years ago.

The idea was almost certainly brought with them to the Yorkshire Wolds, where they laid out an early field system.

The name “hedge” came later, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “haeg”, which means enclosure.

Most of the hedgerows which criss-cross England’s landscape, creating the familiar patchwork of fields, date back to the early 18th century when much land was enclosed to make the farms that are largely still in use today.

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But as Britain’s population grew in the 20th century the traditional system of small fields was seen as too restricting, and many hedges were removed after the Second World War to create larger fields.

It was said that during the 1950s and 1960s, the UK was losing an average of 4,500 miles of hedgerows every year.

These days, that process is slowly being reversed, and farmers benefit financially by planting, replanting or maintaining hedges through Natural England’s agri-environment schemes.

Richard says: “People ask me, how long does a hedge last?

“My answer is always the same. Forever. Many of the hedges you see in the countryside are centuries old.”