Hedges - part two of framing the countryside

The Medieval Age, from 700 years CE, the hedges seemed to use more plants instead of stones, such as  the Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) plant. Oliver Rackham found this as explained in the Medieval Landscape of Essex. Hedged fields are noted in the surveys, such as the one of Leaden Roding in 1493. The parish consisted of fields “enclosed with hedges and ditches”. The emergence of hedgerow trees appeared in the "rolls" or the court records of the 14^th and the 15^th century where there were disputes over felled trees.

The Manorial Open Field system where the hedges were removed. The hedges were destroyed to create the manorial open field system. Fields belonging to the manor or village were farmed in strips  - a furlong (about 200 metres) in width and this would then be subdivided into strips. The strips were divided by public lot at the beginning of the agricultural year and often the quality would vary so no favouritism was created. A patch of common ground was provided for animal pasture. The village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire still has this form of farming. The strip style of farming reduces the use and need of the hedge.

The Enclosures Act – Hedges were replaced after the instigation of these various acts in the first part of the 18^th century – 4,000 private acts of enclosure covered some 7 million acres were taken from the use of the villagers with a lot of rioting before The General Enclosures Act of 1845. It is thought that a similar amount of land was enclosed without Parliament’s application. This led to the lord of the manor or principal owner of the land instigating the move to enclosure – the reason was usually due to gaining more money.

Hedges were removed after World War Two (post 1945) to create more food after the war and then were replanted as it was found the hedge provided something that chemicals couldn’t provide…

Hedges give the added benefits of reducing the water movement, which reduces the flooding; it improves the water quality by creating thorough filtration; it reduces the siltration in water course; it provides stock-proof boundaries as stock shelter and it prevents the spread of disease; it prevents soil erosion; it supports beneficial invertebrates; it supports beneficial invertebrates to arable crop production; it acts as a surrogate habitat for all levels of the food chain such as wild flowers, butterflies, ladybirds, bats, hedgehogs to name but a few; 149 species of invertebrates are supported by Hawthorn and Blackthorn, the hedges and the hedgerow trees contribute to carbon sequestration and the provision of hedges and hedgerow trees can increase property value by 5 to 20%.

The management of hedging will make the hedges last longer and provide the benefits:

• Coppicing can help to rejuvenate the health of a hedge ecosystem if the hedge has gone too far for simple layering or trimming.
• Hedge laying - if unmaintained, the hedge will gain holes in the its length or at the base, this affects the integrity of the benefits. To maintain the hedge’s health, it needs to be laid – where the healthy stem is cut, laid and interwoven between wooden stakes.
• Hedge-trimming – the use of a flail where the cutting height can be increased over the years. The hedge takes time to reflower and refruit on which the biotic factors of the hedge ecosystem depend on.
• Hedge Management Scale – an informal management system as devised by Hedgeline UK using the High Hedges Law, where on a scale of 1 to 10 describes hedges in mainly residential area but can be used with the management of rural hedgerows. 1 describes heavily overtrimmed, 5 is a healthy hedge and 10 is a unmanaged row where the plants have become trees.

            Hedge legislation:

• The Hedgerow Regulations 1997 in section 97 of the Environment Act 1995 prohibits the removal of most countryside hedgerows.
• Tree Preservation Orders made by the Local Planning Authority can be made on areas, groups, individuals and woodland.
• Single Payment Scheme compliance part of GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Conduct) 15 restricts the cutting of hedges from the 1^st of March until the 31^st of July.
• All wild birds, (listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) are protected and as are their nesting sites within hedgrows.
• The agri-environmental schemes, including the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, restricts the cutting of hedges between 1^st of March until the end of March (or the end of August, which is dependent on the start date of the scheme (1^st of October)).
• The old Inclosure Acts may require old hedges to be retained and managed forever.