Paul's hedgelaying

Bucks, Beds & Herts hedgelaying
The first and largest hedgelaying website

March 2016

65 yards hawthorn hedge, Denham, Bucks. South of England
 
An unusually low hedge to lay, but understandably the customer wanted to be able to see the fine view on the far side

 

65 yards hawthorn with ash standards, Bow Brickhill, Beds. "Live Lancashire style"

In marked contrast to the previous very low hedge, this one is about a tall and heavy a hedge as one can manage, especially working on one's own as most hedgelayers do. It would have been impossible to secure this hedge by adding stakes in the conventional way. Live stakes were left alternately either side of the hedge and the hedge was laid into the corridor created down the middle.

The first four images show the hedge from the same point, before, during and on completion

This view along the top of the hedge with work in progress shows how compact the hedge is given the size of the material.
  
This view from the front shows how dense and solid the end result is.
 
View from the field side showing that brush has been left on this side
  
This late in the season I already had as much firewood as I needed but plenty more came out of this hedge and all went to a good home!
 
Towards the end of the hedge it became significantly thinner and at one point I had to reverse the direction of lay for a short distance to fill
in a gap. The end of the hedge is lower and more brush has been left to make the most of the material that there is.