The RX-8

Countryside
Your Countryside Matters
In this issue Tony Ridd of Landscape
Therapy looks at the tradition and
importance that hedgerows in our landscape
still have:
Saturday 25th February saw the ‘15th
Annual Hedgelaying Competition’ take place
at Blackwater Hollow. Twenty four
competitors, a record for the competition
and over 350 spectators enjoyed a sunny but
bitterly cold day.
Hedgerows are an important part of our
landscape, used to divide fields and define
boundaries. Although hedges are believed
to date back over 1200 years ago to our
Saxon ancestors, hedge planting only really
took off in the 15th and 16th Century. The
craft of hedgelaying was not commonly
practised, until the 18th century.
Hedgelaying is important to conserve a
healthy and ‘full’ hedge. Traditionally
carried out to maintain a boundary and
retain livestock that included, sheep, pigs,
cattle and horses, it is now practised for the
conservation of wildlife habitats,
rejuvenating derelict hedges and to improve
the aesthetics of our landscape.
To lay a hedge well, takes experience and
regular practice. You start off by cleaning
out the hedge, removing brambles and
ground vegetation. Select the
pleachers (the name given to the
stem that are cut and laid), partly cut
the pleacher using a billhook, axe or
saw until the pleacher can be bent
over retaining a hinge of bark, sap
wood and cambium that will allow
the pleacher to regrow.
Stakes are then knocked into the
ground at regular intervals and
heathers (whippy lengths of hazel)
are woven around the top
strengthening the hedge and holding
down the pleachers.
Laying a hedge not only improves the
area around that hedge, it also
encourages good woodland
management as a source of
hedgelaying material.
The Hedgelaying Competition
consists of three categories, open,
novice and team. It is jointly organised by
myself and Matthew Chatfield, Senior
Countryside Officer for the Isle of Wight
Council. It is supported by Wight Wildlife
who give an award to ‘The Landowner in
recognition to their valuable contribution to
hedgerow conservation on the Island’,the
AONB Partnership and The Isle of Wight
College Countryside Section.
Thankfully because of our Island
countryside there is a growing interest in
conserving our hedgerows and this is
reflected in the competition, with high
standards being achieved each year and the
demand for hedges to be laid increasing.
Look out for next years competition that
will be held on the last Saturday in
February.
The W Hurst and Son Challenge Cup for
open competition – 1 Dick Pulleine, 2
James Cook, 3 Tom Murphy; The Mary
Sitch Challenge Cup for Novices – 1 Oz
Hoskyns, 2 Alex Holmes 3, Rob Richards;
The Landscape Therapy Team Trophy – 1
The Artists (Paul Sivell, Tim Johnson and
Gavin Hodgson), 2 Never Mind the
Billhooks (Rob Jones, Simon Sherry and
Grace Booth) 3 Great Curtailers (Matt
Arum, Chris Gibson and Darren Sharpe);
The Wight Wildlife Conservation Award –
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Seely of Dunsbury
Farm, Brook.
Contributor Tony Ridd
Results: Top: Rob
Richards, 2nd
in the Novice
Section.
Left: Matthew
Chatfield
presenting 3rd
place to Tom
Murphy.
Below: Never
Mind the
Billhooks and
Judge John
Kingswell.
36 Island Life - www.islandlifemagazine.net