Hedgelaying

Hedgelaying (or hedge laying) is the process of partially cutting through and then bending the stems of a line of shrubs or small trees, near ground level, without breaking them, so as to encourage them to produce new growth from the base and create a living ‘stock proof fence’.

[1] It is a countryside skill that has been practised for centuries, mainly in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with many regional variations in style and technique.

The first description of hedgelaying is in Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War,[2] when his army was inconvenienced by thick woven hedges during the Battle of the Sabis in Belgium.

The height and condition of the trimmed stool, known locally by names such as a stobbin, is vital as this is where the strongest new growth will come from.

The woven whips are known as binders or heatherings; they can be of any green wood such as birch, ash, or willow which will hold the stakes and tops of the pleachers down securely.

Derived from the rougher Sussex Bullock Fence[9] it has a double brush style,[4] but the cut base of the pleachers can be seen.

Pleachers are simply laid one on top of the other, usually in alternating directions, with little of the brash removed, and then pegged down with crooked hazel stakes (similar to thatching spars).

It is laid between two arable fields—and is so designed that by the time grass has replaced plough land in the rotation system, the hedge will have grown to a normal height.

When steeping is finished any eroded soil is cast up on top of the hedge to retain a good height of bank.

In this context, the word hedge derives from an earlier one meaning bank – i.e. the division between strips in the medieval farming system.

[10] Typical features of the style are:[4] The shrubs are laid along the top of an earth bank faced with stones.

Often stakes are dispensed with as well, almost all the brush trimmed off, the pleachers cut short and then laid low into the post and rail fence.

There is also emerging interest in reviving older methods of using live stakes (crop and pleach style).

In the exposed uplands of the Eifel mountains, a particular type of hedgelaying has been employed since the 17th century that makes use of the characteristics of red beech to shield domestic housing and also to protect fields from damage by cattle and wind erosion and drying.

In more temperate parts of Australia the British settlers in the nineteenth century planted hedges of hawthorn.

Although mostly similar to the practical and swiftly worked Isle of Wight style, occasional examples of a laid hedge can be seen on the continent.