Written by Sonja Moore, a Director of Hedgerows Ireland.
The possibility of attending a hedge laying championship in Stanford Hall to watch, learn and understand different kinds of hedge laying proved to be a very rewarding experience. Especially for one who had never laid a hedge, only tried her hand on the few unfortunate young hawthorn trees serving as guinea pigs to provide the ‘feeling’ of laying some matured whips.
The national competition organised by the National Hedge Laying Society was overall well organised in a large field belonging to Stanford Hall demesne. The brief but adequate descriptions of the ten various hedge laying styles involved in the competition were easy to read on staked boards at the beginning of each section where the large number of 110 competitors (Yes, 110!) concentrated on the challenging tasks at hand. According to a judge I spoke with, the hedges were of the same age, ca. 12 years, and as each section consisted of pretty equal conditions – seemingly quite a rarity in a hedge laying event – all competitors were neither advantaged nor disadvantaged in their categories or in the competition overall. Basically, all singing from the same hymn sheet. Unfortunately, I missed one hedge laying category as the competition was held over a few, though not visibly connecting fields. This was a pity as it held the Yorkshire style, an odd one amongst the hedge laying. Unusually, it uses wooden frames to hold the hedge in place and together. I guess, one can always use the frame to lean against it when asleep, or when having a sip of one’s preferred body-warming bevvy?
Observing the competitors, I could only but admire each focused (though some vexed and some improbably relaxed) participant in their endeavour to succeed, among them a very small quote of 4 very determined women (bravo and fair play to them!). It was the explanations of the different styles on the boards that were quite enlightening: hedges high, strongly intertwined, bound and staked in a straight singular row or alternatively placed to keep cattle/horses either in or out of a field, or similar but much shorter hedges to keep sheep out/in, or away from new growth; barrel-shaped hedges laid and kept horizontal, not at an angle, to the ground; sawn stakes instead of hazel in counties where no hazel grows.
Two types of hedges especially caught my attention, the Welsh Border and the Devon/Dorset styles – although many spectators preferred other styles for very sound reasons, I liked the quirky ones. The Welsh one is a double brush style (both sides keep the brush), but the stakes are at a 35⁰ angle with the pleaches laid at an angle opposite to the stakes. Eventually, after many unsuccessful enquiries, a veteran competitor explained that the crossed sections of stakes and pleaches thwart the sheep from lifting up the lower hedge with their heads thus preventing them from getting through! Impressive!! There must be some really, really strong-headed sheep in Wales…
The very neat, very tightly woven, low, horizontally-laid, barrel-shaped Devon/Dorset hedges that do not need any stakes can be found on embankments up to 4 feet high (and probably higher) and 21 feet across, or as a competitor I spoke with, commented: “ …worked on one embankment so wide a bus can be driven on it”. Perhaps, a trip by our organisation to visit those incredible, wide, hedged embankments? Could a style similar to this be useful in the west of Ireland?
Unfortunately, I failed to track down anyone who could explain why the stakes in the Cheshire hedge are placed – 7cm (not 8 or 9 or 10 cm) behind the stump. If anyone could enlighten me, I would greatly appreciate it.
One-sided brush hedges are particularly thought-provoking: one side is left with much brush to keep cattle/horses away from the new hedge growth in that field; the other hedge side is left bare of brush when laying the hedge to accommodate tillage crops. How very practical and logical.
Although, one judge also uttered a word of caution to me. Cut or dead wood put back in the hedge for bulking it up, or strengthening can cause dead patches in the hedge the following year. One landowner, who formerly allowed a hedge laying competition along his well-maintained hedge, is now refusing to deal with any (any!) hedge layer from the NHLS after dead spaces appeared the next spring. Not all hedge laying events have, it seems, a happy ending…
The competition itself was greatly attended by the very young to the very mature, even by many dogs. All the competitors held on to the very end till the handing out of copious and wonderful prizes to winners, youngest and oldest participants, novices, females and veterans, intermediate and open classes, and overall champions, amongst numerous other categories. But how quickly cold, freezing, and drenched the competitors and spectators alike sprinted back to hotels (if lucky enough) to re-warm body and soul in either a sauna or steam room!!
Both evenings and other occasions were delightfully used by many to reacquaint themselves with old friends from the Dutch and English hedge layer associations, and also make new friends, connections, and offer/accept invitations. So I am watching out, like my fellow companions, for the next competition in the Netherlands next March, or in Yorkshire in the autumn.
Our ‘free’ time was spent examining in detail available and affordable hedge hand tools (and yes, some were bought), in many sudden bursts of brainstorming a litany of really interesting ideas for our organisation, discussing the event, or diving head-long into some hedge-related issues, all of which, as Clive remarked, “…was really positive and as it should be!”
I am really grateful to Hedgerows Ireland for making this educational trip available, but also for my most inspiring and entertaining companions for their never-failing positivity and enthusiasm, their ideas, their discussion, their stories, and the most jovial banter – and also to Clive (and his two navigators Robbie and Mark) for his tireless driving and getting us all there and back safely! So, how about availing of an old-fashioned map in conjunction with a GPS, that did not know its way, for next time?
Thank you all for a most wonderful hedge weekend!!!
Fantastic. There needs to be a big push for hedges in Ireland. My father lays hedges but I don’t know if the style would pass muster in that competition