Maasheggenvlechten

The annual Maasheggen hedgelaying festival took place at Beugen, close to the Maas river system, south-east of Nijmegen on Sunday 9th March. Like no other hedgelaying competition I have ever attended, it is a huge event, drawing an estimated crowd of nine to ten thousand spectators. The weather was glorious right from the start and below you can see the competitors getting their pre-competition talk.

Only the local Maasheggen style is allowed in the competition itself and Phil and Dave had entered as a team - teams are the norm in Dutch competitions, with up to five competitors in each team. Peter and I had been asked to do demonstration cants of Midland and South of England, as were a team from Flanders doing their local style and Jef Gielen constructing a 'wildlife hedge'.

 

Our cants were in the field furthest away from the entrance and marquee and rather heavy, considering that we were laying with hand tools only - serves me right for pontificating about the overuse of chainsaws.

 

 This is my bit about half way though. The temperature had got to 18c or so by then and the sweat was pouring off me. You can see John's Land Rover and tent in the background and beyond that some of the hedges being worked on by those in the competition.

 

Despite our somewhat remote location, we attracted good crowds and here is Peter giving it some welly on a particularly heavy stem, making the pleaching cut and taking off the heal at the same time. He got a well deserved round of applause for his efforts. Note how the public are allowed close to the cutter - no chainsaws of course - and the brush had to be placed behind where the public are standing, in specifically marked areas so that they had a good view.

This is my finished cant, with Jef and his assistant finishing off their 'wildlife hedge' in the foreground. You will see that he has used living stakes (crops) and incorporated almost all the available material to create a very wide, dense hedge.

 Difficult to gauge what the spectators thought of the South of England style, as the Dutch are naturally very polite but many said it was 'beautiful'. I'm not sure if this meant neat and tidy or perhaps over-fussy for what is, after all, a field boundary. The use of binders would certainly have been something new to them and these willow ones gave a very nice finish.

The Dutch style is very different from anything seen in the UK, with pleaching cuts made at various heights and the stems at a low angle, and horizontal along the top of the hedge. The example below won second prize in the competition and the team of three are laying the final stems along the top of the hedge which, with the live crops, makes for a very strong hedge. The result is rather sparse to our eyes but regrowth would no doubt be good.

This was the winning hedge. Most of the side growth has been removed but they have laid most of the stems from low down, somewhat reminiscent of the 'Yorkshire' style.

And here are two very happy Englishmen, who produced a creditable version of a Massheggen.

 

We all had a great day. The weather was fabulous and the hospitality of our hosts second to none. The lasting impression was one of huge crowds, meticulous organisation, the unbridled enthusiasm of the competitors and a genuine interest in the wildlife value of hedgerows from the spectators.More photos of the trip can be seen here.

 

A bonus for me was my first ever sighting of migrating Common Cranes (Grus grus) when sixty one flew over the site at 10am - very special.

I also got to meet Georg Muller, the author of 'Europe's Field Boundaries'. This work is the result of more than thirty years of study and documentation of field boundaries of all kinds in twenty-three European countries - a true magnum opus. If you interested have a look at his web site here.