I thought it would be a nice idea to revisit some of our earlier projects and give an update on their progress. Very early on in NEWT’s existence, about 4 years ago, we did two hedge laying projects. At that time we had been on a coppicing and hedge-laying course and had started replacing our petrol tools with electric. These were proving far better for working with small parties of volunteers than noisy, stinky petrol tools.
Firstly we approached West Berkshire Council about a hedge at Monkey Bridge Newbury. This was a bit on the mature side for hedge-laying but it wasn’t being looked after by anyone and was becoming a bit of a straggly mess. Much as nature quite likes a mess, the hedge was lacking density so not being as beneficial as it could be for birds and small mammals. Density, especially lower down in the hedge is our key aim for hedge-laying. Traditionally this was important to make a strong hedge for keeping livestock from escaping fields, but now a days density is important to create the best habitat. A dense hedge provides a much safer environment for birds and small mammals, Having density low down in the hedge makes is better for the mammals in particular, like hedgehogs, mice and shrews. It is also good for amphibians like frogs, toads and newt’s and also reptiles like snakes and lizards. Dense hedges will also provide more food in the form of blossom, fruits and insects.
Laying a hedge achieves density as the pruned and lain branches will have many shoots creating way more branches. Parts of the hedge that were coppiced as part of the laying, will have many shoots from the ground creating that lower down density. Finally all the dead wood that is interwoven with the lain hedge, will be host to all the little bugs and critters that our birds and mammals call food.
The second project we did back then, was to help a local community group at Great Shefford laying a hedge. They had been given permission to create nature habitats on a green area separating houses where a balance pond had made a nice wetland area. It was great to help a like minded project to our own and get some practice running a volunteer group, where as we had mainly attended other peoples up to this point. They were a keen and enthusiastic bunch and we had great fun on a damp and grey day. This project is now called Hickson Hedgerows which you can read more about here. I have today been on a little road trip to Great Shefford to get some photos for this update and was pleased to see that hedge is doing great.
I really like the Hickson Hedges project as it just goes to show what anyone can do with any green space near you, creating all these local habitats through small community projects, that start to form into corridors, A friend of mine Sue Millington has taken this to another level, purposefully forging a corridor of connected habitats to give nature a route through Newbury. Such a corridor approach is essential for nature to have routes to migrate along in times of crisis, we can’t just have all our nature holed up in disconnected nature reserves, we need to allow it to migrate as and when it needs to by providing travel routes of nature for them to travel along much like we do roads. You can read more about Sue’s fantastic nature corridor project here https://www.newburyfoe.co.uk/nature-corridor NEWT’s Northcroft Meadows Nature Reserve in Newbury is at one end of the corridor so we are obviously collaborating on getting the maximum benefit from this.
Hedge photos are always a bit hard to show you these things in action as they often just look like a dense mess of branches all over the show, which is vert much the idea really. But hopefully you will be able to pick out elements of what I have just said in the photos below.
For anyone who is into hedge laying and knows what they are doing, I would like to point out that we are not professionals, are mainly self-taught and don’t even attempt being tidy, let alone adopt a particular style of hedge-laying. I think what we do might be a bit like the Somerset style, but more out of accident than anything purposeful. We found that with the maturity of the hedges we worked on, we had little choice but to do things in a certain way, like the larger mature trees will only lay down at a certain angle and there was always going to be way more dead material than you would want in a presentable hedge, but we wanted to use as much as possible of it for the bugs and critters. So please don’t criticise our lack of neat and tidy hedge-laying, being neat and tidy was never our intention.
Monkey Bridge Hedge
I’m going to include all the pictures from the beginning to show you a timeline. Remember what we want to achieve is increasing the density of the hedge, so keep an eye on how much light you can see through it!
The before shots…
Before we started we had a row of densely planted trees. But this isn’t a hedge, just look how much light we can see through it. Now we could simply lop it all off at shoulder height, much like a tractor with mechanical hedge cutter would do, but that isn’t going to get us that low down density we want for the small mammals. This hedge is useless for hedgehogs as it gives no protection or opportunity to nest or hibernate.
Work in progress…
As these trees were quite mature we just did our best to lay the thick branches and keep as much of it connected to the root as possible. It took some persuasion and jumping on top of it to compress it all down.
The hedge strikes back…
Due to the maturity of the trees this wasn’t a typical hedge lay like we’d been shown how to do. We had more than a few bits that broke off rather than lay. So we were pleased as punch when a few months later, green shoots emerged all over the place. Like a lot!!!
and more…
and more…
Density…
By this point it was obvious that nature was appreciating this, the hedge was full of birds feeding and nesting, buzzing with insect life and we started finding an awful lot of frogs! We know that we have hedgehogs, mice and shrews around so I am sure they are enjoying it too. It was quite interesting to see that density of the hedge can frustrate predators like cats and dogs from being able to penetrate the hedge. The birds seem to find this amusing too.
So let’s check out that density now and think back to what this tree line was like before it was laid. How much of a better habitat is that for birds, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, bugs, critters and Fungi which is enjoying the dead wood infill.
And here are some winter shots to show that even when not in leaf you can see the density of the hedge. If you look closely you can see the many offshoots sprouting from the laid lengths and also coppiced stumps that are now clumps of small new shoots. Even when not in leaf in winter, how much light can you see through the hedge now? Now imagine you are a mouse, bird, hedgehog, shrew looking for a safe place to live that maybe has some on suite snacks; how much more appealing is this that that open tree row?
And here is a birds nest from the summer to prove it!
You can see this row has been left and now has quite big branches looking more like trees. We haven’t pruned this end as it tends to be flooded in the winter, but it is interesting to see the difference to the other section we do prune.
Compared to a much flatter top on the pruned section.
Great Shefford – Hickson Hedges
Hickson hedges were laid the year after Monkey Bridge in the spring of 2022. I’ll do another timeline to show you a similar journey of not being able to see through the hedge anymore. Remember this is all about density! Thank you to the Hickson Hedge team for their photos, you can read more about that project here.
Before…
Work in progress…
There’s me making a mess for other people to clear up as usual! 🙂
Hedge ninja in a raincoat
As you can see we are working in proximity to houses so I would have been very conscious of using noisy petrol tools. The electric tools aren’t silent the chainsaw chain makes quite a whirry noise, but nothing compared to a screaming two stroke engine. The funny thing is that my petrol chainsaw chain must have also made that noise, I just couldn’t hear it before!
We used all the offcuts and scrub to make a dead wood hedge. This is a fantastic habitat for bugs and critters. So it is also a fantastic habitat for anything that likes to east bugs and critters. Perfect for Hedgehogs and Shrews!
Project update…
It was great to visit today and see how the hedge has progressed. There are quite similar species of tree to the Monkey Bridge hedge and they were also quite mature when laid, both are in quite sunny spots, so it wasn’t surprising to see similar results.
The dead wood hedge looking like a bug and critter paradise. This is fantastic Hedgehog habitat
The project team at Hickson Hedges have also been up to a bunch of other stuff! It is great to see a community project make such nice use of a communal green area.
And here we have a new hedge planted, this needs a few years before it can be laid, ideally the stems should be between 2 to 5 cm (1″ to 2″).
Great to see how lovely this space is. I’m sure it is popular with many residents, and the people who live there too 🙂
This is so easy to do
Trees and hedgerows are often planted as part of a housing development or road construction, as they are stipulated in the planning. But once planted the box is ticked and nobody follows up to maintain them. The hedge at Monkey Bridge was planted as part of the new Monkey Bridge construction project, you can see the same along the A34 embankments, I should imagine the hedge at Great Shefford was too. That means we have a fantastic opportunity because there must be loads of these little hedges and green spaces dotted around our communities. These green areas can have their bio-diversity potential massively increased through some easy to do gentle, soft touch management; which would so much help some of our most vulnerable native species!
Is there a hedge near you?
If you have somewhere in your local community that you think could benefit from a similar project, then please get in touch. You will need permission from the land owner, but having a charity such as NEWT backing you with these case studies of previous projects can really help you get permission. NEWT collaborate with local charities, organisations and community groups for the good of all, if you have a like minded project in Newbury please get in touch.
We are currently looking for some help creating educational content for a nature trail. We want to plant some fruit trees and we also have an awful lot of hedges on our new Northcroft Meadows nature Reserve to do something with. They are very old and not in a good state so we are creatively thinking what best to do with them.
If you are a professional who runs hedgelaying courses, then we could offer you a venue to host them for free 🙂