About me
I am a practising hedgelayer and yoga teacher living in Wingrave between Aylesbury and Leighton Buzzard. Both my occupations started as hobbies so I have a very enjoyable working life doing things I love.
I have laid hundreds of hedges in the last 25 years or so, predominantly for private clients. I am a National Hedgelaying Society accredited hedgelaying contractor, number BLI001-060 and listed on the National Hedgelaying Society website. You can view and search images of my work over the last 23 years here, view my business clients here broken down by market sector and view the distances of hedge I have laid annually here. I have also taught hundreds of people hedgelaying over the years.
The styles I lay are Midland, South of England and increasingly Crop & Pleach which uses live stakes alternating ether side of the hedge for a stronger, cheaper, quicker and potentially taller result than most traditional styles.
I have had some success in hedgelaying competitions. Here are a couple of hedges I laid that won first prize in class:
Burwash Manor, 2010. Midland class, 1st prize
Burwash Manor, 2011. Midland class, 1st prize
I'm not interested in laying hedges just for the money and if your hedge isn't suitable I'll tell you. If it's not ready to lay I'll encourage you to wait until it is; most people will only have a given stretch of hedge laid once in their lifetime so why do it other than when the best result can be obtained?
I used to cut my own stakes and binders each September from a local wood managed by the Greensand Trust but am increasingly laying crop and pleach style using live stakes either side of the hedge to sandwich the hedge between the stakes. This is stronger, faster and less expensive than the traditional styles of hedgelaying and very well suited to the majority of hedges I am working with these days. As of 2025, the cost of stakes and binders is around £1.50 and so it costs around £6 per metre just for materials for these styles, before anyone has even touched the hedge. Here is part of a 248 metre hedge laid for Dacorum Borough Council by the Grand Union Canal in the centre of Berkhamsted within a stone's throw of Waitrose:
Although this site was level laterally, in places the ground sloped down significantly from the canal towpath, as shown here. Live stakes have kept this very tall hedge in place since it was laid in November 2021 - see here.. Here you can see two full height and one half height live stakes this side and a full height live stake the other side though further stakes may not be visible from this angle.
I first tried hedgelaying in 1985 and by the late 1980s had decided that it was something that I wanted to do seriously at which point I obtained a formal chainsaw qualification from the NPTC. From the early 1990s I started laying hedges on my own for clients and gradually built up a fledgling business whilst continuing to work in Information Technology. In 2000 I took voluntary redundancy after 20 years at the same company.
As well as being able to spend more time hedgelaying, this also gave me the time to train as a yoga teacher, something I had started practising in 1995 and as of 2025 I have taught over 6,500 yoga classes. My yoga website is here.
My two occupations complement each other perfectly - one is year-round, the other seasonal, one is indoors the other outside, one is mostly solitary the other involves me meeting lots of people, the hedging allows me to commune with nature and the yoga is very centring and of great benefit both to myself and my students. The flexibility and suppleness I have both gained and maintain through yoga have helped me avoid injuries and niggles from hedgelaying which is very physical work.
I have also given illustrated talks about hedges and hedgelaying to:
- Ampthill Rotary Club
- Bedfordshire CPRE at their AGMs in 2013 and 2024
- Bletchley Archaelogical and Historical Society
- Digswell Lake Society having laid 191 yards boundary hedge for them
- The Friends of Studham Common
- Prestwood Gardening Society.