Hedgerow trees

The humble hedge is the face of much of Britain. Not surprising, when this small island boasts 500,000 miles of it. This makes the collective UK hedge our biggest nature reserve - it gives shelter to countless wildlife species while acting as a matrix of wildlife corridors across the country. However, its ubiquity has led to the hedge being overlooked and taken for granted, allowing for the decline of our heritage to happen almost unnoticed.

After decades of neglect, the hedge is finding favour once more as enthusiasts come to the defence of this once-loved asset.

All shapes and sizes

When we speak of hedging, there is no uniform definition. There are low bushy ones, clipped box hedging in rose gardens, ancient mazes of yew or the sculpted topiary of the aficionado. There are the tall, spectacular hedges that tower above country house gardens, trimmed by uniformed tree surgeons in cherry pickers. And then there are the garden hedges, proudly pruned specimens, of all shapes and sizes that give suburbia its painstakingly green and tidy aura. For the most part however, this mainstay of British greenery is a small, squat, thorny, scraggly, much-underappreciated bush. They get a moment of attention every autumn when they burst forth with colourful berries, haws, and hips. But otherwise, they are forgotten in plain sight, taken for granted and, too often, obliterated from our minds.

For years, even tree planting champions regarded hedges as second-rate – not equal to that of ‘full grown’ trees – an unfortunate misconception that continues to this day by those looking to trees to absorb their carbon footprint.

But hedges don’t have to be compared to towering beech trees. While they rarely attain the grandeur of mature trees, they can be teeming with life, many species co-existing and making a living in its scrubby, scratchy, interior.

Recent campaigns are calling us back to recognise hedgerows as vital to our landscapes. After we have lost so much, we are now looking for places to put them back, to bring back the habitats they provide and to learn to love again the humble hedge we have taken for granted.

In this vein, the Tree Council launched, in 2021, the first ever National Hedgerow Week. Over seven days we were invited to ‘talk to the hedge’, not only to compliment a hedge on its ‘underbush’ or ‘fine wattle’, but to revive the nation’s interest in this quintessential feature of the landscape.

Changing face of Britain

Anyone who is a fan of the game Geoguesser will understand that Britain is full of hedges. Geoguesser is an online game where you are given a picture of somewhere in the UK and you must try to pinpoint on a map where you are. Unless you are particularly lucky to be landed on Tower Bridge, the algorithm means you’re normally plonked out on a countryside B-road looking squarely into a hedge. Be it Kent, Cornwall, or Powys, small hedgy sideroads happen just about everywhere and tend to look all rather similar: wizen trunks of hawthorn being overtaken by rangy field maples clawing upwards in straight pencil-thick shoots, dog roses curving outwards in parabolas of thorns.

These hedges largely came out of the Enclosures Movement in the 17th century onwards and the subsequent division of land into fields and private farms. Over the course of the following 400 years, these hedgerows became the boundaries for estates, parishes, and even counties, changing the face of Britain.

The subsequent post-war loss of farmland hedging during the 20th century has been, in a small part, compensated by the rise of the garden hedge. Far from just being a boundary between property, here they went on to become a mainstay of middle-classdom, an outward expression of one’s orderly and reputable life. Many a petty neighbourly heckle has been raised over a hedge – the playful perpetual bickering that keeps middle England on its toes. Such exchanges have in turn fuelled stereotypes about the ‘hedge-trimming classes’, the small-mindedness of suburbia characterised by Privet Drive in the Harry Potter novels.

Hedgerow mechanics

So to dispel any ongoing misconceptions let’s state the obvious: hedges are trees, only planted in rows and usually trimmed. Many contain other flowering plants, such as dog roses, sea buckthorn, honeysuckle, and bramble (all very useful), but 90% of the hedge will be true tree species, such as hornbean, holly, hawthorn, beech.

What this means is that in many hedgerows you’re likely to find far more tree diversity than in an average woodland. In fact, the hedge creates diversity, by protecting species and allowing them to grow.

In her recent book, Wilding, Isabella Tree writes of the importance of brambles and spiky plants in protecting sapling oaks, pointing out that these rough scrubby clusters are in fact essential for woodland succession. Baby oaks that would normally be browsed by deer and other grazing animals are left to grow tall, protected by the hedge.

What’s more, the intertwining of all these species make for very useful habitats. All those tiny spiky branches looping through each other like a giant bird’s nest is in fact excellent habitat for birds to nest. If the hedge has good diversity, this can mean food all year round – the differing timings of flowers and fruit can mean there is a continuous supply.

Hedgerow champions

As the UK looks for ways to up its tree coverage, there is pressure on local councils and landowners to find space for this. In the arable areas of the country, this is no easy feat, as planting traditional woodlands will directly take away from food production. Farmers are quite rightly loath to do this on prime soils. Re-growing hedgerows, however, has been seen as a way of enhancing the landscape without detracting from the business of farming. Even in pastoral upland areas, hedgerows are becoming once again appreciated for their role in sheltering livestock from adverse weather.

With this mindset, suddenly the UK has a huge potential for tree planting. Even in areas of Grade 1 agricultural land, there is potential for miles upon mile of new trees to be planted.

The humble hedge is fast becoming the focal point of a conversation about what we want our country – both rural and urban – to look like. It’s encouraging to find at last some hedgerow champions.

This article first appeared in the 2021 edition of Trees, ITF’s journal.

Donate now

Help plant trees of all shapes and sizes and protect our planet for future generations.