Wednesday 15 February 2023

Learning Hedge Laying

 Last week I had a couple of perfect winter days. 

I do some work for a friend on a casual basis as he has a number of properties and they all need things doing to them on occasion (sash cords, floors, kitchens, etc), and he has a man who does much of the outside maintenance work on the estate. 

His name is Steve and he works on lots of farms and small holdings locally, he does some great work and one that always stands out is his hedge laying. I always chat to him if we're working on the estate at the same time, he's a smallholder as well so we share similar interests. 

I enquired last year about getting him to lay the hedge I planted about 9 years ago, but he's all booked up. Instead he suggested I spend a few days with him to learn the basics and then have a go myself. 


So last week I spent two days with him on his smallholding (in the same village as ours) in the glorious winter sunshine. 

He knew I could use a chainsaw and had done coppicing work before, so I could make the cuts needed and understood trees. 


We set straight to work. It was a very difficult hedge to lay, too old and over stood really, but doing this gives it some structure while the seedlings he'll plant to gap fill will establish. 


It reminded me very much of working with my brother when he had some coppicing contracts on riversides. I dragged out the brash as needed and tried to keep it clear. Steve got me straight on the cuts on the hedge though, and because there was two of us we could lay over bigger bits of the hedge than if it was one man working. 



It produced an incredible amount of wood, as well as the fact we could pull out the posts and binders we needed to form the structure of the hedge. 

I feel like in two days I learnt so much. Steve was great company and we had a good laugh together, working at a good rate to get the job done. 

Since being home I've started on some of my own hedges straight away (more of that in another blog post/video) to gap fill and try to get enough posts to start laying the nine year old hedge. 

Feels like a countryside skill I was lacking, especially as my grandfather was a champion hedge layer and later a national judge for it. 

Who else can lay hedges? 

What countryside skill would you like to learn?

12 comments:

  1. Never heard of hedge laying before arriving in UK. It does look like a useful way to rejuvenate a hedge row and reestablish a fence that might contain live stock.

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    1. yeah, it keeps the hedge healthy and doing what they were originally created for, to be a stock proof barrier. This one would need a bit more in the bottom to do that though!

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  2. A natural stockproof hedge. I have laid a hedge with a bow saw and billhook. Machinery noise like chainsaws can spoil the peace and quiet but they speed the job up. Nice job and much more aesthetically pleasing than sheep wire.

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    1. Ah that's the beauty of the saws we were using, the two main ones we were using were battery operated. We both had a 36v chainsaw and it keeps it nice and quiet!

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  3. A lot if hard work but it looks amazing. I've wanted to have a go at it and also dry stone walling. Watch a guy last year make the most beautiful Wall out of a pile of stone and rubble.

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    1. I'm the same, always wanted to do it but would never give myself the time. I'm glad I have though! I'm really enjoying it. You'll like the next bit I've done as well!

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  4. I know precisely nothing about hedges other than reading that they exist (mostly in novels about England), so this is all new to me. And also very cool!

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    1. I find it mad that it's not used in some countries, but then I guess it's pretty slow to establish. That said I planted one nine years ago and it's grwon well. When I lay it in the next few weeks it would be stock proof.

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  5. This brings to mind an article I read in the Telegraph last October about the man who taught King Charles all about the art of hedge laying - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/how-to-grow/art-perfect-hedge-man-who-taught-king-charles/

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    1. Ah a paywall stopping me reading it! He is said to like hedge laying. I can't say I'm a massive fan of the royals but a bit of graft is good for us all and hedge laying is certainly that!

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    2. Kev - if you go to browser settings, site settings, JavaScript, and turn off JavaScript for the specific site www.telegraph.co.uk you can bypass the paywall, however it will block all comments on articles.

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    3. Thanks, I'll give that a go!

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