HEDGE LAYING

Despite the gloomy weather conditions a group of volunteers, members of Green Gym, Reddish Vale Rangers and Stockport Conservation Volunteers took part in laying a hedge on Blackberry Lane, Brinnington. The work was started on Fri 12th and completed on Sat 13 January.

Hedge laying developed as a way of making a stockproof barrier out of readily available material, that is , living woodland plants. Until the invention of wire, hedges were the only practical and cost-effective way for a farmer to enclose his stock in areas where walling stone was not to hand.

Hedge laying involves partially cutting through the living stems near ground level, and bending them over as 'pleachers'. They should lie close, like plates in a rack. Depending on the style of laying, the pleachers are anchored by stakes and binding to form a living fence. This fence has several purposes.

It forms am immediate barrier to stock or people. Depending on the style, it provides protection from browsing animals for the young shoots, which grow from the base. It improves the micro-climate by slowing the wind and raising the air humidity, so helping the growth of the young shoots. Even in the period immediately following laying, hedge laying retains sufficient of the pleachers to maintain some habitat for other organisms, including birds, small mammals and invertebrates. Some new shoots also sprout along the pleachers, thickening the hedge for the first few years after laying, until most of the pleachers eventually die. By this time the new shoots from the base have grown up to form a thick hedge.