The History of the Hedgerow

Fence row in Mentmore village, Buckinghamshire

The hedgerows of Britain, which divide our fields and meander along either side of our country lanes, are one of the beautiful editions to our great British countryside. They provide shelter, additional grazing and enclosures for livestock, habitat and corridor links for wildlife, landmarks to denote property boundaries and as a renewable resource with a huge diversity of wild plants that not only make them, but are there because of them. But do you ever stop to think how they came to be? In this blog we will reveal their history with the help of documentary and archaeological evidence to help give us a greater understanding and deeper appreciation for the hedgerow next time we find ourselves driving past or walking alongside them, maybe taking advantage of what they have to offer us in our bushcraft pursuits.

Group at the hedgerow, on a foraging course in Oxfordshire
Group at the hedgerow, on a foraging course in Oxfordshire.

So how did the hedgerow come to be? To answer that question let us start with the landscape as it is today and work back in time looking at the available evidence to see how far this journey takes us. Today the hedgerows may seem like they haven’t changed a bit in our lifetime, it is like they have always just been there.

Fence row in Mentmore village, Buckinghamshire
Fence row in Mentmore village, Buckinghamshire.

Thankfully, their decline has stabilised from previous years, as attitudes have changed in favour of the hedgerow and assistance in protecting and maintaining them came, albeit in limited form. Apart from the local planning system and developers, which has seen some controversy in recent years regarding hedgerows, they are offered some protection under The Hedgerow Regulations of 1997.

Volunteer group hedge laying
Volunteer group hedge laying.

Volunteer groups and professional hedge layers also keep small sections healthy and the craft in making them and maintaining them in the traditional way alive. While local authority, landowners and farmers trim them back to keep it in order remains their economical solution, but does little for the health of a stockproof hedgerow compared to the traditional methods. It does, however, help to ensure that they remain, which is great for us and the wildlife they support.

Hedge laying in all weathers
Hedge laying in all weathers.

Firstly, it is good to know hedgerows are not exclusive to Britain, there are examples across Europe and as far as Peru and in fact it may surprise you to learn there is now more hedgerow in the US today, having little or no hedge laying culture themselves. This is all down to the phenomenon of the ‘fence rows’, where birds come to rest on fences, depositing the remains of their meals and the resulting deposit germinates, growing into a fence row. This happens here in Britain too as you can see in images 2 and 5. The Iron fence that was installed in about 1820 by the Mentmore Estate, now has an established hedge growth through it.

Fence row in Mentmore village, Buckinghamshire
Fence row in Mentmore village, Buckinghamshire.
Hedgerows removed to create large open fields for mechanisation of the land
Hedgerows removed to create large open fields for mechanisation of the land.

Looking back, we lost a lot of hedgerow between 1975 – 1950. Attitudes change, and people took them for granted, thinking they were more of a recent addition than we are about to realise here. There are several factors which contributed to this, from the reduction of available workforce to maintain it, the introduction of new machinery to cut the hedge, wire fences and the subsidized removal of hedgerows to open the land up for larger mechanisation to increase agricultural efficiency.

Wire fence replacing hedgerow in disrepair
Wire fence replacing hedgerow in disrepair.
Barbed wire fence on field boundary
Barbed wire fence on field boundary.

Between 1850 – 1750 the enclosure act saw 200,000 miles of mainly hawthorn hedgerow, much planted in very straight lines. Hedges were planted and the temporary fencing used to mark and protect the hedge, could cost more than the hedge itself. Much of this hedgerow remains as it was up until 1945 and equalled in length to what had been planted in the previous 500 years.

Straight line hedgerow planted to divide fields
Straight line hedgerow planted to divide fields.

This all sounds great to us now, but for the commoner at the time it was an awful time. Let us take a moment to understand what really happened here. We’ll set the clock to medieval times. As early as the 12th century, the land was held by the nobility from the crown. The peasants used the land to grow food just to survive and would pay a duty for this right in food that they grew and in labour which they provided. This arrangement became a verbal agreement and for the most part although hard, worked for hundreds of years.

Blackthorn, provides good stockproof hedge suited to cattle and later, sloe gin
Blackthorn, provides good stockproof hedge suited to cattle and later, sloe gin.

Hedgerows were very much part of medieval Britain located among open field strips, around parish boundaries, between meadows and pasture, around paddocks and closes attached to a village. Planting hedges increased, during the 15th century enclosing more open field boundaries, using plants dug up from the woods or from nurseries. During the 16th century the climate became colder and the demand for fuel increased. A Hedgerow became a valuable resource for fuel, but stealing wood from a hedgerow earnt you all Sunday in the stocks and you were whipped until you bled.

Sheep grazing in field, Hedgerow replaced by wooden fence lasting 8-10 years, in disrepair an electric fence now sits behind it. A stockproof hedgerow only needs laying every 10-20 years, and will not rot or use electricity
Sheep grazing in field. Hedgerow replaced by wooden fence lasting 8-10 years, in disrepair an electric fence now sits behind it. A stockproof hedgerow only needs laying every 10-20 years, and will not rot or use electricity.

Capitalism in the 17th century became a driving force and Landowners realised one of the ways they could make lots of money was from textiles, the problem was now that the land they wanted to raise sheep on was occupied by the commoners, with different people owning/occupying little bits of the land here and there. They needed to consolidate it all but not all would agree. Parliament passed laws creating legal property rights to land that was previously considered common. This represented the interests of the wealthier landowners, forcing the minority (the poorest), to go along with enclosure. Tenants who only had verbal agreements had it the worst, as they were unable to provide any written evidence of their right to the land and these rights were duly removed, forcing them to seek employment in towns to support their families.

Laid hedge, stools cut to use as supporting stakes
Laid hedge, stools cut to use as supporting stakes.

The enclosure act also required that the owners of the land had to physically enclose it. This was expensive and they often had to sell parts of their land to afford this. Small landowners would then find themselves without enough land to survive on and they too would have to sell up and find other means to support their family. This led to huge poverty and in dealing with it, laws were passed to force people to either work, imprisonment, deportation or at times hanging was enforced. Those peasants willing to work became the workforce in towns and factories often in terrible conditions. Between 1604 and 1914, over 5,000 individual acts were put into place, enclosing nearly 7 million acres of land.

There are many regional styles of hedge, this is the Midland style hedge, with hazel binders at the top, running horizontally between the stakes to make a very sturdy hedge
There are many regional styles of hedge. This is the Midland style hedge, with hazel binders at the top running horizontally between the stakes to make a very sturdy hedge.

That is the story of how most of our hedgerow came to be, but it is not the end of the story by far. Going back further, the earliest record of someone planting a hedgerow is ‘the hedgerow that Ælfric made’ at Kingston Langley in Wiltshire in 940. (The earliest written record of a hedge is the ‘old hedge’ at North Wootton in Somerset in 816).

Spindle (Euonymus europaeus) characteristic of old hedges
Spindle (Euonymus europaeus) characteristic of old hedges.

Up to this age there is rule you can follow, when you are next out and about, to determine the age of a hedge near you. (Now he tells us!) In the 1970’s Max Hooper studied hedges greatly and devised this famous rule for aging a hedge. Determined by the number of species within a 30-yard length, with each species representing 100 years, would determine the age of the hedgerow. Working the most part for hedges up to the age of 1,100 years. There are also species of shrubs and herbs that are characteristic of old hedges, which can also help, such as wild service (Sorbus torminalis) and spindle (Euonymus europaeus). This neat formula will not work everywhere though, you need to think that in upland areas and to the north of Britain, hedge species are less diverse and in areas dry stone walling performs the task.

Hawthorn, evidence of trimming at a Roman fort
Hawthorn, evidence of trimming at a Roman fort.

Dating a hedgerow beyond 1,100 years then becomes difficult to substantiate as there is no documentary evidence and so we look to archaeology to provide the answers. We do not advise you randomly go round with a shovel looking for this evidence, so let us have a look at a couple that have been discovered to complete our journey.

Evidence at a Roman fort called Bar Hill in Dumbartonshire. Discovered under the fort were bundles of hawthorn that had been used to partly fill in a ditch. The hawthorn showed growth to indicate it had been cut/trimmed a couple of years prior to it being placed in the ditch, this is thought to show possible hedgerow management practices.

Dog rose (Rosa canina) thought to be part of a Neolithic hedgerow
Dog rose (Rosa canina) thought to be part of a Neolithic hedgerow.

Our older evidence of Neolithic hedgerow activity is supported by the discovery at Shaugh Moor in Dartmoor. Waterlogged remains of cut dog rose (Rosa canina) and hawthorn (Species not specified), with split oak (Species not specified) and hoofprints have been preserved at this site, radiocarbon dated to 1390 +/- 90 BCE. This indicates a stockproof boundary formed in a ditch was in place dating back to the Neolithic period. Going to all this effort at that time, enabled livestock to be left unattended and protected from predators to some degree, freeing up time to do other essential tasks, much as it does today.

A landscape telling a long hedging history…….what’s to come?
A landscape telling a long hedging history…….what’s to come?

Well, that ends our story at the bronze age, it has been quite the journey, but there is so much more to the hedgerow and hedge laying and the best way to appreciate it is to get out there and enjoy it. When lockdown allows why not join a local group and involve yourself in learning a new free skill in the form of hedge laying and help keep this ancient craft alive.

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