Hedge-cutting: neglect and renewal

Farming and smallholding practices have altered over the past century or so. Some have been subtle, others less so – and many brought about by technology and legislation. In another of his monthly series, Jeremy Hobson continues to outline just a few of them.

- By Jeremy Hobson

In an article for Country Fair – a magazine of the 1950s – Kathleen Naylor wrote: “Early in the present century the sign of a good farmer was his well-cared-for hedges, but during periods of shortage of labour and urgent food and stock production, fences, hedges and gates seem to be the first to suffer neglect. Now, the present trend for mechanised farming and the subsequent need for larger fields is leading to the ... destruction of many farmland hedges.”

Another view of the then state of hedgerows was made by a Professor G. R. Clarke who, in Country Magazine – a book of the 1940s BBC radio series of the same name, opined: “I hate nearly all hedgerows. I’d like to see ‘em all grubbed out. The English hedgerow ... is one that has been neglected for years when it should have been cut and laid. It harbours vermin and weeds and gets in the way of [farming] tackle.”