LIA LEENDERTZ
One of Britain’s largest and most widespread wildlife habitats is so ubiquitous around the country that it’s easy to take for granted. But the secrets held within our hedgerows speak volumes about our history – both natural and otherwise.
Hedgerows have much more to offer than simply creating boundaries, according to gardening writer Lia. “Hedgerows support dozens of invertebrates, mammals and birds. And all in a strip less than 2m wide,” she says.
Hedgerows meander through the British countryside – everchanging dividers of road from field, and field from pasture. In spring, their bases are speckled with a constellation of flowers; in summer, the sides and tops are bright green and brimming with foxgloves and roses; in autumn, they become a tapestry of red, orange, yellow and brown leaves and glistening berries; and in winter, they are dense and twiggy and strung with fluffy old man’s beard.
Though a constant presence, hedgerows can often be overlooked and taken for granted. Yet they have much more to offer than merely acting as boundary markers. Look beneath the surface and you’ll discover they are hugely varied, containing hundreds of plant species, which support dozens of invertebrates, mammals and birds. And all of this in a strip often less than 2m wide.
This wonderous habitat is peculiarly British. A 2007 survey estimated that there were about 402,000km of hedgerows in England alone. A living link to our past, they have an extraordinary and complex history – tied both to the birth of agriculture and to one of the most seismic political changes to our countryside.
Their story starts back in the ancient woodlands that once covered most of the British Isles. It seems likely that the very earliest of hedgerows were simply the edges of clearings amid existing woodland. These clumps of dense forest would not have been particularly productive (apart from a few berries, nuts and fungi), as tree canopies block light and roots take up most of the available moisture that any crops would need. But where natural clearings appeared, both light and moisture levels increased. Gradually, people enlarged these clearings to grow more and more crops. In the process of hacking back many of the woodland trees to their bases (the ash, maple, hawthorn and blackthorn that even now make up the bulk of our hedgerows), they would have sprouted back
Hedgerows that grew around early fields are among the oldest structures in Britain.
up, creating thicker growth that forms a far better barrier than a line of trees. The potential that these bushy, woody plants had for keeping animals away from crops would have been immediately apparent to early farmers, and so the first rudimentary hedgerows were born – carved from ancient woodland.
These clearances and enclosures of fields continued little by little over hundreds of years, and wherever there are fields, there must be boundaries. The hedgerows that grew up and were maintained around these early fields are thought to be among the oldest structures in Britain, with perhaps a