Firstly, we’d like to thank our neighbours on Windmill Lane for their patience over the last 2 years – and for bearing with us through the difficulties we have been experiencing with delays to our DEFRA rural payment capital grant applications.
However we do now have the good news, which hopefully most readers will have seen in the Wheatley village newsletter, that we are about to ‘lay’ the western section of the hedge along Windmill Lane.
A Little Background
Nowadays it’s recommended that rural, countryside hedges are cut on rotation every 3 years. So you can cut one face a year or trim it in stretches. This means that the hedges can constantly ‘refresh themselves’ with new growth. It also allows the untrimmed areas to provide berries for birds and small mammals in winter and flowers which contain pollen for insects in spring and summer – vital food which would otherwise be removed every year.
Unfortunately the Windmill Lane hedge had been flailed along its entire length, in the same location, every year for many decades causing it to be very brittle with few smaller branches, have large knuckles and generally be in a very poor state. As a consequence of this over-trimming there were many gaps where sections of it had died. Indeed without The Trust allowing the hedge to grow a bit (a process known as ‘letting up’) for a couple of years and then laying it we were at a risk that we would soon lose the entire hedge – along with all the vital habitat it provides!
About Hedge Laying
Hedge laying looks quite brutal to the casual observer! But this ancient art is a key component of keeping hedges healthy. By cutting the main trunks and stems at an angle it stimulates new growth, and then when those stems are bent over this creates a much denser network of branches and a ‘frame’ from which the hedge will then grow upwards and outwards. Once this process is completed the hedgerow will look similar to the above, with gaps planted up with new saplings and existing hedgerow trees retained. From there it will thicken up and grow and in a few years will once again be a valuable habitat for our local wildlife.
We’re fortunate to have one of the UK’s most respected hedge experts, Nigel Adams, living and working within 10 miles of us, and so in November 2022 I attended a hedge surveying and management course run by him with Wild Oxfordshire. So if you’re interested then his website is a valuable source of information.
The Works
Here in Wheatley we’re very lucky to be able to work with a fantastic locally-based hedgerow specialist. Our contractors, Buryhook Countryside Management, have been advising over the last 2 years as we let up the hedge and will now be laying the hedge for us.
Hedge laying is a very skilled and time-consuming process. It’s also something which is best done incrementally on long stretches like ours – for the same reasons outlined above. We’re therefore phasing the works across 2 winter seasons. The stretch of hedge that is being laid this winter runs along the border of The Howe from the main entrance to the allotments opposite no. 15, west 200m right along to Post Mill House. We can now confirm that Buryhook will start this work in the next few days. Weather permitting, we expect the work to take approx. 5-6 days.
Parking
If you’re a regular visitor to The Howe, or have an allotment, please note that Buryhook will require complete and clear access to the hedge from both sides. This means we would appreciate your support and we’re therefore asking that all visitors do not park any vehicles on the grass verges during this time.
Thanks for reading!
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