Hedge Building in Great Britain

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BingBong

Lifer
Apr 26, 2024
1,548
6,572
London UK
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 .puffy
I tend to think of hedges as multipurpose. Acting as windbreaks is quite important, helping to conserve cereal crops; impenetrability controls livestock movement; bramble colonization provides prolific summer berries; year-round shelter provided to small birds and minor wildlife.

Simultaneous multifunctionality has a beauty of its own.
 

gawithhoggarth

Can't Leave
Dec 26, 2019
384
2,653
47
Kendal, UK
www.gawithhoggarth.co.uk
Here in the Lake District we have dry stone walls everywhere. They run for miles over the fells and were built many many years ago. It's a dying art now knowing how to properly build them. Different areas have different ways of dividing fields and enclosing livestock. Down south in areas, there was or is less stone and so hedges were used. Hedges would struggle in the weather we get on the fells in the Lake District and would be ripped out by their roots in the gales. Farmers are now being paid to replant hedges for wildlife after years of ripping them out in many parts of the country.

And most hedges, except the most dense hawthorn hedge, would not keep sheep in. Usually there is wire fencing within the hedge or on one or both sides.
 

MisterBadger

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 6, 2024
728
5,634
Ludlow, UK
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 .puffy
1. Economy of materials traditionally dictated by terrain: in lush, lowland areas with a deep, fertile soil favourable to tree growth, hedges are most common; but in upland areas, stone is preferred. In Shropshire, where I am, we have both. In fact, the small piece of land I bought this year is bounded on two sides by a dry stone wall, and on the other two by hedges.
2. Yes, still preferred method for containing livestock, but often neither hedges nor walls are maintained as well as they used to be. There is some tendency towards larger fields for livestock grazing and containment within an area within that enl;arged pasture, by the use of movable electric fences.
3. I wonder about that. I have no idea what native shrubs/bushes/trees would have been available to the early settlers, and clearly they didn't have room on board their ships to bring over saplings of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, field maple and holly, otherwise these would be common all over the eastern seaboard on the US today..
 

MisterBadger

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 6, 2024
728
5,634
Ludlow, UK
Here in the Lake District we have dry stone walls everywhere. They run for miles over the fells and were built many many years ago. It's a dying art now knowing how to properly build them. Different areas have different ways of dividing fields and enclosing livestock. Down south in areas, there was or is less stone and so hedges were used. Hedges would struggle in the weather we get on the fells in the Lake District and would be ripped out by their roots in the gales. Farmers are now being paid to replant hedges for wildlife after years of ripping them out in many parts of the country.

And most hedges, except the most dense hawthorn hedge, would not keep sheep in. Usually there is wire fencing within the hedge or on one or both sides.
I'm learning drystone walling, as it happens (I need to, as the walls on two sides of my land are falling down).
.
A good hedge will keep sheep in: you find wire fencing in or alongside hedges, because that makes them easier to maintain as far as livestock containment is concerned; but hedges should be repaired, and gaps refilled, every winter at a minimum. Sheep are ingenious at escaping, and dying: we say that those are the two main aims in life of any sheep :)
.
The beauty of a good, centuries-old hedge is in its plant diversity; and sheep will - believe it or not - doctor themselves for minor ailments by browsing different wild plants that seed and grow in a hedge's shelter.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,851
8,747
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
I had never heard the term "Slow worms"
They really are creatures of beauty. Actually they are legless lizards that can grow to around 12-16 inches though the ones I've seen were rarely over 9 inches.

Very shy critters, they are quite the rarity these days and I believe they're a protected species....if they aren't then they really should be.

Jay.