Few things have helped create the look of the English countryside more
than hedgerows. Hedges have been used for a long time in England, yet for all
their antiquity, much of the familiar checkerboard pattern they help create
is of very recent vintage.
Hedges have been used as field boundaries in England since the times of
the Romans. Excavations at Farmoor (Oxon) reveals Roman hedges made of thorn.
The Anglo-Saxons also used hedgerows extensively, and many that were used as
estate boundaries still exist. Although these early hedges were used as field
enclosures or to mark the boundaries of one person's property, there was no
systematic planting of hedges in England until the first enclosure movement
of the 13th century.
The pressures of population expansion led to a widespread clearing of land
for agriculture, and the new fields needed to be marked clearly.
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Hedges are used as field boundaries in the lowland regions of
England. In the highlands, such as the Yorkshire Dales,
dry stone walls are commonly used.
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Later, farming expansion in the 15th century led to more widespread hedge
planting, but the greatest use of hedges came in the Enclosure Movement of
the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Enclosure Movement is a fancy term that historians use to describe the
habit of wealthy landowners enclosing common fields for their own use,
usually for the purpose of raising sheep.
So great was the need for hedges during the enclosures, that a whole new
industry sprang up supplying hawthorn plants to be used in planting new
hedges.
In the process of enclosure many rural labourers lost their livelihood and
had to move to the new industrial urban centres. So the next time you sigh
over the timeless quality of the English hedge-shaped countryside, spare a
thought for the misery and hardship caused by the erection of hedged fields
to much of England's rural population.
| Hedge Facts |
When: Roman, Anglo-Saxon, 13thC, 15thC, 18th-19thC
Where: Lowland areas
Why: Field boundaries
How: Planting bushes or trees and pleating them together at an angle as
they grew
Materials: huge variety based on local availability, but the most
common were hawthorn, blackthorn, and holly |
A lot of effort and ingenuity has been brought to bear on the problem of
dating hedges. Several historians have advanced mathematical formulae for
calculating the age of a hedgerow based on the number of plant species found
in a certain length of hedge. As an extremely rough rule of thumb, one
species of hedge plant per 100 years seems to get close to the truth.
Unfortunately, recent years have seen the disappearance of many miles of
English hedgerows. Farmers want bigger fields for their crops and It is
easier for modern farmers to string new metal fence wire than to maintain
ancient hedgerows. This has lead to the erosion of the soil in some cases, as
there are no longer any roots to bind the soil together. Conservation efforts
have introduced incentives to farmers to maintain the hedges, and losses have
slowed somewhat. Estimates vary, but there may be upwards of 500,000 miles of
hedgerows in England today.
The fields surrounding Rishton are of mixed variety. Because of its
location, field boundaries can be either stone walls or hedge rows, depending
on the gradient of the land.