The Hedgelayer 

Like you I learned this in the 1950 as a 14 year old from what seemed to me to be an old farm hand along with stack building lleaving a funnel to stop over heating .Now a thing of the past .

Not part of The National Curriculum. Fewer schools are inspiring and educating children about ... anything much outside of it. The emphasis is on passing tests.

@@graceygrumble When Francis Chichester 64 sailed Gypsy Moth IV single handedly around the world in 1967 , my headmaster had the caretaker paint a huge world atlas on the playground. Every week, they painted dots to reflect his progress I we learned something of the countries along the way. You see, it worked !

@@ashleyhoward8926 Beautiful! We had a lad in our class whose granda had won the European, pigeon racing championship... well, his pigeon had, but you know what I mean. That lad was not academic, but he became the teacher's assistant for a week. We spent a week doing history (pigeon-based); geography (flight paths from Brindisi - where the pigeons had been let loose); maths (distance, time, speed) and art - drawing from photographs of 'The Winner' and writing poetry. 50 years later, I remember that week. PS. I forgot to mention that his granda gave us a talk about pigeons, too and he brought The Winner in to show us. PPS. He let him go in the playground and assured us that he would get home quicker than any other creature on earth. Marvellous!

You said it, yeah it seems counterintuitive to hack away at it but plants can bounce back from it, truly impressive. And it creates a thriving ecosystem.

Oh, hello. Thank you for filming this entertaining and informative video.

Thanks Dave, delighted you found the film so watchable!

Been there, its died away

Thanks for this very thoughtful reply. Hedges are very much a man-made habitat and must be managed by us for peak health and best use to wildlife /biovidiversity and for the huge benefits they bring to farmland which include flood mitigation and shade/shelter in these days of more extreme weather (sun and rain). Many people would have been out managing hedges by hand in the autumn and winter time and for that reason a) they were more gently managed and b) not all were managed at once, giving wildlife more of a variety of habitats over time. People would also be out managing verge and ditches. Now it's one person and a tractor. The invention and use of livestock fencing helped to bring an end to the use of the hedge as the barrier for farm animals.

@@cpreshropshire2489 From what I've witnessed, the key is showing people how it's in their immediate best interest. While we can talk about how the hedges are a beautiful thing and good for wildlife, that falls a bit flat with folks after awhile. How you change that is by showing them how it's of immediate benefit to them. The wood pulled out of the hedges every year is made into goods for the home, traditional items that they're ancestors have been making or eons. Cups, bowls, saucers, hurdles, stools, chairs, fences, gates, all manner of things that not only beautify their home, but actually set them apart from "the other" and give their area a beautiful appearance unlike anywhere else. And to make all those products, you need bodgers and colliers and a handful of other trades that were once common throughout the land. I do sometimes apply patriotism to the talk, pointing out that they are employing people in some far off factory to make their rakes when they could be employing a gentleman right down the road who makes fine wooden rakes from local hedges, carefully pruned to keep the hedge healthy and vibrant while also providing work for local people. While a single rake doesn't seem like much, when you start adding up all the goods that can be produced from the hedgerows, people start seeing them as a valuable commodity well worth protecting. Good for the environment and all the little creatures that call them home.... but also good for the people of the area. Zed Outdoors, here on YT, does a good job of documenting the craftsmen working tirelessly to keep these old skills alive. It shows that there's a ton of interest both in the doing and the viewing, and I think it's important to capitalize on that. The Bodger's Ball is an annual event where hundreds of people come together to demonstrate their work.... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZTasPBOrql8.html ... and you can see that it doesn't take gobs of cash to get started making things. These are traditional trades from way back in the day and are meant to be done with very simple tools, things you can often make for yourself or find at rummage sales and estate auctions for a pittance. By bringing everyone together, we turn the management of the hedgerows into far more than an ephemeral concept of "good". Through the hands of the craftsmen, we cement that ideal in the firmament of reality, making it a direct and tangible benefit to the people local to the hedge. We just have to remind folks of their culture and heritage.

Thanks for your feedback; this wasn't really a 'how to' sort of video, more to give a flavour of a day in the life of a hedgelayer. But we will bear this in mind for future films.

Try this film from Proper Edges - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TGFKxOP8SD0.html

It is a living, shockproof fence. This is how all hedges were kept for 2000 years until the flail was invented in the 60s. It is a truley beautiful art.

That WAS indeed the purpose, when the technique was devised. But the beneficial side-effects - of thickening the bases of gappy, flailed hedges so that blown leaves are trapped, so that cover is provided for nesting birds, a corridor for wildlife is produced, and a home for hedgehogs (=something that sounds like a hog and lives in a hedge....geddit?) results....these are the reasons to keep it up now, whatever is in the field.

Agreed, but you are approaching hedgelaying from a conservation viewpoint, Farming is an industry which grows livestock and crops for food, the books have to balance so the economics are most important to the land owner. If you haven’t already read Ronald Blyth’s ‘Aidensfield’

@@jimwulstan8592 hedgerows (healthy ones) have more than just an economic or biodiversity value - for farms they provide essential shelter for livestock in summer and winter (I've seen new lambs sheltering in hedges in wind and rain and the sheep line up to lie beneath their shade in the heat of the sun in fields with otherwise no other trees), they help stop spraydrift, they can help protect against flooding (esp if cross slope contour). But they only work in these ways if they are healthy and well managed.

I agree with you but there is no reference to this in the above video when it is the most important consideration of all. It seems to me that when many hedgerows were bulldozed for arable farming their accompanying ditches were also filled which is now having a very negative effect on water runoff.

@@jimwulstan8592 it's an interesting point you make about the destruction of ditches (along with the hedges) since they also serve a really important purpose for us and for wildlife.

I watched that a while back, was good

It’s a great one that I’ve watched it many times. The pipe never leaves his mouth 😄

England.

Maybe a bit loud alright but excellent otherwise.

To each their own, I found the music lovely and soothing.

The situation is much better than it used to be compared to the 1980's. A recent LIDAR survey was done of English hedges and there are still over 400,000 miles of hedges which is thought to be more than anywhere else in the world. There was an analysis of this by the BBC news in January

Leaver?

Thanks for your feedback. This wasn't really intended as an information film, more an impressionistic picture of a day in the life of a hedgelayer for people who perhaps don't know what they do or why they do it. There are some fantastic videos on RU-vid on more technical aspects of hedgelaying - Proper Edges is one to look out for.

@@cpreshropshire2489 cheers, I'll look them out.

Try this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TGFKxOP8SD0.html