Hedges - part one of framing the countryside

For the keen of eye, I have not mistyped the title. But it could be stated that farming is a form of framing the landscape and the hedges add extra dimensions to those field boundaries.

The picture above shows an arable farm in Ely. There are no visible hedges to act as the field boundaries. The land is flat and ideal for arable.

The picture above shows a more mixed farm with pastoral and arable in Trenerth, Cornwall. A few more hedges along the field boundaries and there are a few more spinneys and copses. There is a gentle undulation to the land and the picture suggests arable agriculture with a possibility for some pasture.

Hedges, be they a collection of shrubs and trees (whether hawthorn, hazel, or whitethorn) manicured with the aid of tractor flail or the Devonian version, which is an earthen bank topped with shrubs and often faced with turf or stone. The Cornish variant is a similar earthen bank with interlocking stones topped up with shrubs and trees as this will help to reduce the wind damage on the farms. 

Farmers used to frame the land with a form of a hedge – this word comes the Dutch (haag) and the German (hecke) meaning to enclose. Presumably to protect the animals, crops and the land from wild animals and other people.  The first example were used to enclose arable land six to four thousand years ago, the Neolithic Age. BCE = Before Common Era. The fields tended to be approximately 0.1 hectare where the farm may have been up to five to ten hectares. 

The hedges become prominent in the Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,800 years BCE), the use of bronze as a working material meant that a single family or tribe could tend more fields. The increased number of fields meant that a crop failure may not be such a problem. The fields tended to be of a basic shape such as  a square or a circle. This was presumably as there was little competition and a turning circle was needed for the ox and plough.

The Iron Age (800 to 200 years BCE) led with an increase in the amount of workable materials and at cheaper prices, the demand for the amount of fields would become greater and thus the need of field boundaries would be in greater demand.

Next time - hedges from the Medieval Age to the present day.