Speynes Mere

SHG were at Speynes Mere again on Saturday, laying another section of the hedge we started last year. This is a planted, double-row, predominately Hawthorne hedge of twelve to fifteen years. The photo below is of the section we laid last year and shows the lack of any substantial undergrowth which is a great boon for the hedgelayer. The section we laid on Saturday was very similar but had been flailed at about five feet a few years ago, which had left a lot of stag-horn growth and tangled tops.

It had rained heavily on my drive down to the site and I was sure we were in for a wet morning. However, the rain kept off until lunch time and we just got a drenching as we made our way back to the vehicles. Because of heavy rain in previous days we had parked some way from the hedge and I left my camera in the car, so only got a few shots at the end of the session. The cant I had was a joy to lay and was done with hand tools only. It's surprising how fast you can work with just a billhook, axe and saw when the stems are of a reasonable size, not too tall or old and brittle and there is little clearing out to be done; as someone remarked 'that's all the pre-war hedgelayers used on any sort of hedge'. 

The photo below shows the team staking and binding through the final few cants. In the foreground is a section of Hazel which was the only poor part of the hedge with just a couple of small stools to cover eight feet of hedge, so it was laid in both directions to fill the gap.

Looking in the other direction we see a finished section - well almost finished as Roy is just taking off the ends of the binders with loppers.

And then it rained!