Hedge Building in Great Britain

[Choatecav]

This is something that not one in 100 will find of interest, but I found it fascinating AND it has something to do with pipes.

The video below is an old vintage reel from 1942 and it is displaying the art/science of building the hedges that they use to separate fields and pastures and that are so tightly woven and thick that cattle cannot get through them. Some of you that have an interest in World Wars I and II will recall the difficulty that the allies had in France, Belgium and other parts of Europe, in getting through these thick hedges.

Anyway.... this video shows a veteran hedge worker who is showing his apprentice how the building of the hedge is done. This looks to me to be very hard, manual work and I am sure that doing this all day would be exhausting. The veteran "hedgeman" has a billiard pipe in his mouth for the entire time that he is working at this strenuous job. I don't think he has it lit for much of the time, but does, near the end, as his apprentice takes over, finally lights it up.

Anyway, I hope you like it.....

 

[Briarcutter]

Wow! And I find it hard to rake leaves in the fall. What workers they were!!

 

[dd57chevy]

Cool vintage video . Loved the gentleman's riding breeches & boots ... and pipe .

The Allies had to field rig various cutting attachments to get through them :

Not sure if our tanks would tip over when trying to get through or if the hedges were like trying to get through fifty stout , green wooden cables.....

 

[VDL_Piper]

I think Clarkson’s Farm tv show touched on this old form of fencing and I know of a farm in Tasmania employing the same technique.
Farmers revive convict craft to restore historic hawthorn hedges


Farmers revive convict craft to restore historic hawthorn hedges - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-04/restoring-tasmanias-hawthorn-hedges/9106960

 

[ssjones]

We used to have a member here that made a living building hedges in the UK.

 

[Choatecav]

Cool vintage video . Loved the gentleman's riding breeches & boots ... and pipe .

The Allies had to field rig various cutting attachments to get through them :
View attachment 360398
Not sure if our tanks would tip over when trying to get through or if the hedges were like trying to get through fifty stout , green wooden cables.....

From my years of doing a lot of fence clearing work, I can tell you that it is amazing how strong vines, trees, saplings, etc. can become when they grow together in a thick mass.

 

[Sigmund]

I remember visiting GB and the hedges were quite impressive. Cattle would not have had a chance! Light didnt even make it through. I was young and stupid...I thought they just grew that way.

 

[Choatecav]

I remember visiting GB and the hedges were quite impressive. Cattle would not have had a chance! Light didnt even make it through. I was young and stupid...I thought they just grew that way.

Like you, Sigmund, I thought that while they may need to be shaped, they pretty much just grew on their own. I had no idea of all of the preparatory cutting, bending and weaving that needed to be done.

 

[ssjones]

It was member "Gimlet" and he posted on a tool thread:

We are Spoiled by Cheap Tools :: General Discussion

During the winter I work as a commercial hedge layer in the UK. Don't know if hedge laying is a thing in the US, so for those who don't know, it starts off like this: And ends up like this (with a bit of work in between..): It is completely impossible to find decent mass-produced bladed...

pipesmagazine.com

(looks like he was a guest)

 

[tracerbullet]

That was interesting. Thanks for sharing. I’m from Northeast US and here we have stone walls. Just assumed it was similar elsewhere

 

[Snook]

Fascinating. I love learning details about things that I've never really thought twice about. I guess I always figured that hedgerows were just bushes planted in a row and then trimmed every so often. I had no idea the work was so involved.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Pipke]

Driving around back roads in Normandy, I was amazed at the hedges. Along some stretches it was like driving through a green tunnel, with the hedges rising up on each side of the sunken road, and the trees arching overhead like a dome. I stopped and climbed around in the hedges for a closer look. Amazing.

 

[mawnansmiff]

When I lived in the Peak District of Derbyshire as a kid my parents bought part of a field to extend the back garden for us kids.

After the purchase he hired a local dry stone waller to wall up the border. The guy and his oppo tipped a few wagon loads of random lumps of limestone and after a while the most beautiful wall appeared, absolutely perfect in every way and not a drop of cement was used.

Here in Cornwall they are known as living hedges* and they certainly are that, often housing all manner of tiny rodents, slow worms and the like. They really are things of beauty that can and do last thousands of years as has been proven with Bronze Age walls still standing!

*Not to be confused with laid hedges which are also called living hedges.

Jay.

 

[Choatecav]

Driving around back roads in Normandy, I was amazed at the hedges. Along some stretches it was like driving through a green tunnel, with the hedges rising up on each side of the sunken road, and the trees arching overhead like a dome. I stopped and climbed around in the hedges for a closer look. Amazing.

Same thing for me. We visited Normandy a few years back and when I first heard of the "hedges" I just thought it was a few bushes and no biggie...... Au Contraire...... These things are almost impossible for soldiers to go through. Who would have thought that something like a hedge would be so intricate.

 

[Choatecav]

When I lived in the Peak District of Derbyshire as a kid my parents bought part of a field to extend the back garden for us kids.

After the purchase he hired a local dry stone waller to wall up the border. The guy and his oppo tipped a few wagon loads of random lumps of limestone and after a while the most beautiful wall appeared, absolutely perfect in every way and not a drop of cement was used.

Here in Cornwall they are known as living hedges* and they certainly are that, often housing all manner of tiny rodents, slow worms and the like. They really are things of beauty that can and do last thousands of years as has been proven with Bronze Age walls still standing!

*Not to be confused with laid hedges which are also called living hedges.

Jay.

Very interesting add. Thanks.

 

[dd57chevy]

At the risk of wandering a bit , I had a few random thought/questions :

1. The reason for their existence . Cheaper than board or stone options ?
Barbed wire wasn't widely available until the late 1800s.......

2. Are they the prevalent livestock containment method today ? (Obviously I'm talking about GB .)
Or has much of it been replaced with post& wire ?

3. Was live hedging ever common in the original American colonies ?

Sorry , my mind tends to fixate on a subject .

 

[beefeater33]

slow worms

Jay, I had to look that one up. I had never heard the term "Slow worms"................man, I learn something new and fascinating on here nearly every day!
Thanks!

 

[JOHN72]

An entertaining and laborious work. It reminds me of the work of birds, when they build their nests, or the beavers. I had never heard of this.

 

[BingBong]

Jay, I had to look that one up. I had never heard the term "Slow worms"................man, I learn something new and fascinating on here nearly every day!
Thanks!

Yeah, back in the day we had a ramshackle far end of our garden left to nature, we'd find slow worms now and again and discovered that their tails break off when you grab them - an escape mechanism. If we were very fortunate, we'd find a grass snake. Wisdom was to leave all alone and merely watch; last I read, these creatures were becoming incredibly rare.

 

[beefeater33]

these creatures were becoming incredibly rare.

Same here in Ohio.............. As a child I recall seeing many species of snakes, many dead on the rural country roads where I grew up. The cars would hit them and we delighted in finding them while riding our bikes. I haven't seen any snakes around for a few decades now..............