Hedgerows are one of the great iconic images of the Westcountry. They criss-cross the landscape, providing shelter and stock-proofing, and are rich and versatile natural corridors for wildlife.
But today, the people who look after them are worried... not as much as when farmers were grubbing out thousands of miles of ancient field boundaries each year, but some fear the countryside could be facing another "lost generation" now that grants for hedges have almost disappeared.
One of those concerned is chairman of the Blackdown Hills Hedge Association Martin Turner, who says: "I think the days of grubbing out hedges are over – there are strict sanctions involved, so the hedgerows are safe – but what worries me is that they will become neglected, and if that happens they will have no value to wildlife or to anyone else."
I caught up with Martin – a former national champion in the Devon-style of hedge-laying – high in the Blackdowns to learn more about the skills involved, and to hear about this possible new threat to our traditional landscape.
Apparently, Devon has more hedgerows than any other county, with an astounding 33,000 miles of these "mini-nature reserves" lining its lanes and fields. More than 600 plant species, 1,500 types of insects, 65 species of birds and 20 different mammals have been recorded living or feeding in the county's hedgerows, so it's not surprising they are regarded as nature reserves.
But Devon didn't always have such pride in its hedges – records from the 1950s show the county used to have a staggering 45,000 miles of hedges, meaning that 12,000 miles – more than the flying distance from London to Sydney – have disappeared.
Then came the great renaissance of hedge-laying in the 1990s – and the good news is that this country-craft is still popular today. The problem is that various government and environmental grants have all but disappeared.
"One of the main things for our association is training – we are very conscious of the fact that hedge-layers aren't getting any younger," said Martin as we walked towards an old Blackdown hedge that he and another one-time British champion, Colin Risdon, were in the process of refurbishing. "We were already making up for the fact that we had a lost generation of hedge-layers. The hedges you see around here skipped a generation – they should have been laid by our fathers, but weren't, so we are playing catch up," explained Martin.
"It is understandable from the farmer's perspective – there are cost implications. If there's a machine that will flail or cut a hedge fast – they are going to go for the cheaper option. It was really through the introduction of grants by Natural England that farmers were inspired to have hedges re-laid and the banks put up properly.
"Unfortunately, the glory days of grants have gone now," he shrugged. "There was a lot of work around for hedge-layers – sadly, in the last two years in particular, that is no longer the case. There is no money available. Now I am worried that we might lose another generation of hedge-layers.
"I sit on various committees – some for the Devon Hedge Group, and we are associated with the Somerset group – and it is a worrying time. People know it's going to be a problem – we are going to end up with rubbish hedges again if we're not careful. A hedge wants to grow into a row of trees. Without management, not only does it become not stock-proof, but it's also not so beneficial for the wildlife."
At this point I asked the two champion hedge-layers to give a rough idea of the differential in cost between hedge-maintenance the proper traditional, eco-friendly way, and employing the use of one of those flails which fills our lanes with debris and broken sticks at certain times of year…
"I'm afraid it's a lot more expensive to do the hedge-laying," replied Colin.
"Hedge-trimming is basically £25 an hour – and you'd probably do this whole field in an hour," he said, pointing around a paddock which was around two acres in size. "That would cost you £25 a year for, say, 20 years. If you were laying it – the original job would be £10 a metre."
I didn't have a tape measure, but estimated the entire paddock would cost the landowner perhaps £4,000. The maths behind the differential gets more complex because you have to add in the need for fencing, and so on – but basically Colin is right – you need either deep pockets or a real love of the countryside and wildlife to go down the proper laid-hedge route.
So much for the politics and finances of hedging, but I wondered how someone as passionate as Martin managed to get involved in the first place? "My first recollection of hedge-laying is from when I was five or six – my father originally farmed in the Midlands, so I learned my trade doing the Midlands style – and that's very different to what you see here," he says.
"My father moved down to Dartmoor and carried on laying hedges in that style – in the 1960s no-one down there had ever seen that before.
"I was always interested – so I reckon I had one of the longest apprenticeships in the history of hedge-laying. I started with the Midlands and then had to learn the Devon style. There was a competition in 1997 organised by the precursor to our association – I entered, and Colin did too – and when I read the rules it said only natural crooks should be used," said Martin, referring to the right-angled sticks which help "pin" a hedge to a bank. "I'd never even heard of one – the Westcountry style is very different from what I grew up with.
"It is fascinating – there are people who know a lot more about the history of hedge-laying than me, but basically it's grown up around farming and its practices which adapt to the topology, the geology, the weather conditions and so on.
"It's all about keeping stock in," said Martin, summing up his craft. "That's the fundamental thing – they must be stock-proof.
"When we watched Prince Charles on TV the other week, in BBC 1's Countryfile, one of the poor things about the programme was that they didn't explain what styles there were – they were laying about four different styles. He was laying what you call a maiden-hedge – one that's never been laid before – growing it from ground level.
"Here in the Westcountry we almost always have banks – but some you will see are in a deplorable state. Hedge-laying is only part of the story – there should also be work done on the bank. The sides should be near-vertical."
As he worked, Martin mused: "It never ceases to amaze me, the work that's gone in to making these banks. It must have taken thousands of man hours. And they go back a long way – there are Saxon boundaries up here."
I watched as he went to work on a small thorn bush. "This is called pleeching – or some refer to it as steeping. You basically create a living hinge," he said, demonstrating how you cut through roughly three-quarters of the material and leave a quarter. He hacked skilfully in to the main trunk of the bush a foot or so above bank level. "You want the hinge to be as strong as you can – that allows the actual pleecher (the upper stem that you lay down along the bank) to remain living and growing throughout its length. It's laid virtually horizontal – and that stimulates it to sprout up into shoots. This is what becomes the hedge. Eventually this joint will harden and set – and hopefully that will remain in the hedge until my sons come along and re-lay it."
He added: "The golden rule is – always lay uphill. If you don't it will just die because the sap wants to rise uphill and, more importantly, in the autumn it wants to run back down into the root system.
"Blackthorn and whitethorn lay beautifully – that's why hedges you see in the Midlands are 90% laid with thorn. It is the perfect stock barrier. But, because we have such a rich diversity of plants in this area, there will be five or six species along this little length here.
"There are some species you wouldn't lay – like elder or sycamore. Sycamore will take a hedge over. Ash we often cut out too because it becomes too dominant. The real art is that they all lay in a different way..."
Martin, it has to be said, is a modest man. It wasn't until I finished talking to him that Colin told me he'd actually been a top champion. "At the national level there are 12 different styles and over the years Martin and I have both managed to win the Devon style," said Colin.
In fact there's a big regional competition coming up – the closing date for this year's Devon Hedge Competition is March 31 – so there's still just time to enter. Why not have a go?
For full details and an entry form visit www.devon.gov.uk/hedges or phone 01271 388647 – to find out more about the Blackdown Hills Hedge Association at www.bhha.info
