Every stone has seven sides
Each stone has its own place
Never pick up a stone twice
Make your rows and break your rows
Ram hard
Finally tob off.
This paper explains the proper way to build a Cornish hedge and shows how the Guild of Cornish Hedgers through its Code of Good Practice is correcting some malpractices which have crept into the craft in recent times. Quotations from the Guild's Code are given in bold italics. Nowadays a big problem is the understandable inclination of some hedging contractors to bid the cheapest price for work which is poorly described in its specification, and in doing the work, to use a substandard hedging style. For instance, grounders may be wrongly laid on edge instead of on the flat. Stone may not be graded in the rows, with the result that smaller stones are put in the lower rows, and larger ones in the top half of the hedge, resulting in the larger stones collapsing over the smaller ones. Stones may be placed with their flattest side outwards making the job look tidy, but again this is unstable. The batter is not properly curved to give the hedge stability. Soil or turf may be put, lazily, between the stones. Topsoil instead of rab may be used for filling and consolidation is not properly done. Often the top rows, where the stones are the smallest and most difficult to lay securely, are laid with the stones flat or not properly interlocking and the hedge looks just as if someone "threw stone at it from a yard away". As hedger Hugh Rowe commented on a badly built hedge "I'd build it better with a pike" (pitch-fork).
This Code of Good Practice for Cornish hedges and other stone-faced hedgebanks of similar construction is regulated by the Guild of Cornish Hedgers. It is derived from the expert knowledge of many experienced practitioners and sets out the procedure and standard of work expected in the proficient performance of the craft. Where a contract seeks to depart from this Code of Good Practice, the conflicting details should be agreed in writing before work starts.
Work on hedges which does not comply with this Code is usually found to be unsound. Hedge owners will find the Guild's checklist for inspecting new or restored hedges in Cornwall invaluable in finding out whether a hedge has been properly built or restored. This can be downloaded, free, from the Guild's website www.cornishhedges.com.
Health & Safety The Risk Assessment advice note published by the Guild (available at www.cornishhedges.com or from the Guild's stewards) is complied with.
The Health and Safety Act 1974 requires that working places must be as safe as is “reasonably practicable”. Unfortunately this simple rule has been complicated by many regulations put out by a multitude of different authorities, so much so that no one knows them all. The Guild's advice note has been prepared in discussion with the Health & Safety Executive, and applies to the normal hedging workplaces.
Preparation Before starting work, the type of stone is approved as being similar to nearby hedges and the source of it is agreed with the client.
The first consideration for any Cornish hedge is the stone used in its building. The granites, shales and slates which make up most of our hedging stone differ throughout Cornwall, and it is this geological variety which gives our hedges much of their fascination and interest. White spar is probably the most difficult commonly-occurring stone and often it is laid with alternate levelling courses of shale. The local distinctiveness of our hedges depends more on the type of stone than any other factor. Most of our hedges were built before the coming of mechanised transport, and the hedgers used stone from nearby quarries. Much of the disquiet of modern hedgers is because stone is brought in from a distant quarry and is alien to the local landscape and style of hedge-building.
Hedge is built to the sequence of rows exampled in the existing hedge at the arrowed location shown on the plan attached to the contract. Preference is given to the local style of hedge.
A serious problem has been the loss of individual styles or patterns of stone work. Written specifications have been inadequate in being either wrongly drafted or silent. A natural disinclination of hedgers to read specifications has not helped. The clause in the Code strives to preserve local patterns of hedging, and for their use in new hedges.
Hedgers who want to work in several localities have to learn different styles of hedging and so will have to gain experience in those localities where the styles are that he wants. Most of those styles came about because of the character of the stone available locally, some were the speciality of the local landed estate, and others were the idiosyncratic style of a local hedger of perhaps several hundred or even thousand years ago. These must not be lost, especially a style related to the local stone because it makes for a better hedge.
The width of the base of a new hedge is at least equal to its height, and the width of the top of the hedge is at least equal to half its base. If trees, excepting thorns, are to be planted on the hedge, these top and bottom widths may each be increased by one metre. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, a new hedge is 1.3m (4ft 3in) in height from ground level to the top of the last stone course, and 1.5m (5ft) from ground level to the top of the hedge capping.
The interrelationship between the width of the base, of the top and of the height of the hedge is part of the strength of the hedge and lately has often been ignored, with the top of the hedge being too narrow, resulting in early collapse of the hedge. Where trees are to be planted, the extra width of the hedge allows more space for roots, thus reducing their effects on the stonework. There is about one tonne (ton) of stone and a tonne of fill for every cubic metre of hedge of standard height. On sites where there is an excess of subsoil to be disposed of, hedges may be increased in width to accommodate much of this, with attendant cost saving. This standard height has proved economical for keeping-in of traditional farm livestock.
For repairs, existing material is used, with extra stones and fill if needed. Gaps are cleared down to existing sound hedge structure without disturbing stones or causing an avalanche.
(Methods for repairing Cornish hedges are are described in “Repairing Cornish Hedges”.)
Rabbit tunnels are located and filled.
Many, possibly more than half of the hedges will have been infested by rabbits since last repaired. The tunnels of times before myxamatosis, which struck over fifty years ago, are still preserved in many hedges.
The fill for new Cornish hedges is of damp granular or clay-shaley type of the locality (eg rab, growan, shillet), without peat, leaf-mould or other vegetable matter, rammed hard in 100mm (4”) layers.
The earth bank component of every Cornish hedge must be of the correct material, otherwise the hedge will not stand up. The best material is the subsoil found in the large central area of Cornwall, which is composed of a mixture of clay/sand and soft shales, known geologically as the Devonian series. When this is packed down tight, it sets hard, with the clay element binding the soft shales together. The only snag is that it is difficult to handle when it is very wet.
Any inert soil may be used that is fine enough in its parts to be able to fill tightly all the nooks and crannies between and behind the stones. What is not suitable is any soil which contains organic material which in time will decompose, creating soft spots or voids in the fill. Ordinary topsoil contains 10-20% organic material which when decomposed into humus will have mostly disappeared, thus weakness are created in hedges improperly filled. It is important to make sure that odd bits of turf do not find their way into the fill. The same problem occurs with woody material, especially tree branches and roots, all of which rots away to almost nothing, creating a cavity inside the hedge.
To the north-east of a line between Boscastle and Launceston the underlying subsoil is called the culm measures, being based on the Carboniferous series. This is a different clay soil with few stones, and is not easy to use. It is not surprising that there are fewer Cornish hedges in the north-east part of Cornwall, the earth banks being much smaller and usually faced with turf, or even nonexistent. It is no coincidence that there are few Cornish place-names north and east of the stream running down from Jacobstow to Hele Bridge on the Tamar near Launceston.
In West Penwith, and on Bodmin Moor, and in the area between Camborne and Falmouth the rocks are mainly granite. The limited depths of subsoil are usually either peaty which is useless for hedge building, or of growan. This is granite which has decomposed into its constituent parts with small hard crystalline particles predominating, interspersed with the same material the size of sand.
Proper compaction is essential
Compaction of the fill is vital for the long life of the hedge, and there is no mechanical substitute for the ramming of the fill by hand between and behind the stones. In ramming with the handle of a hammer, the hedger is always feeling for the soft spots. Some hedgers consolidate each layer by walking over it, pressing down hard with the heels; this is a special technique which is described in detail later. Compaction should be so thorough that if all the stone facing were removed, the hedge should still stand. A badly compacted hedge is liable to sink by as much as 10%, probably throwing some of the stones out of their place, and leading to an early collapse.
Where, within the site or project, an existing hedge has to be demolished for other reasons, its stones and fill are the primary material source for the new hedge.
The use of machinery on sites has led to the custom of clearing a site before starting construction works, part of which has been loading and carting away the existing hedges on the site. This is followed, at a later stage in the project, by the bringing in of new hedging stone for hedges. This has been obvious on many road widening schemes and is usual on industrial and housing development sites. This regrettable practice is the result of poor specifying.
A working space 1m wide is kept along the hedge.
The stone will have been delivered, probably in a series of heaps alongside where the hedge is to be built. Hopefully it is of the same type and size as that of nearby hedges. A problem often arises when stone is delivered on different days with the bigger stones, which should be at the base of the hedge, being sent several days after the smaller stones and the hedge building started. The only remedy is to start again. Ideally the job should not be begun until all the stone is on site.
Experienced hedgers get the stone heaps roughly levelled out by the digger, and do not worry if it is several layers thick. They are carefully selective of the order in which they use the stones so that they are always able to take stone from the heap nearest where they are working. They are able to take the stone as it comes and build it into the hedge without breaking the stones at all. This means using their skill to build the hedge so that they can take the awkward stones before the others. Only rarely do they get left with a larger stone than they need for that part of the hedge still to be built, requiring it is split with the sledge. This contrasts with the novice who tends to take the easy stones first, then has to spend a long time wandering around the heaps of stones, to and fro, trying to find a stone that will fit. Or he will spend a lot of time unnecessarily dressing stones.
The Guild's Health & Safety Risk Assessment advice requires that "A zone at the hedge bottom of at least 1m wide along the hedge must be kept clear of stones." Probably most serious injuries in the hedging craft result from the hedger stepping on a stone unexpectedly, especially if he is carrying a heavy one at the time.
The stones are usually set out, one layer thick, not closer than 1m (1yd) to the near side of the hedge, leaving room for the hedger to build. The time that this sorting takes will be more than made up by the speed of building with the right stone coming easily to hand. Cowboy hedgers save time by getting the stone tipped a metre or so from the hedge in a pile, leaving it in a heap until they start building the hedge when they take the first stones that come to hand. This is bad practice and results in unstable hedges.
The newcomer to hedging is advised to lay the stone out in rows parallel with the hedge in order of size, the biggest stones nearest to the hedge . The first row of stones, nearest the line of hedge, is made up of the largest size, those that will be the grounders. The next row of stones are those next in size, and succeeding rows of diminishing sizes are laid out so that the outermost row is made up of the smallest building stones. A separate heap comprises the small chips and wedges of stone which will be needed to support or trig (wedge) other stones. By setting out in this order, the row nearest the hedge will always be the next one to be used. The stones in each row will be smaller than the row below it, as they should be in the hedge, and it helps to memorise the various faces of each stone with its destination in the hedge in mind. While the stone is being laid out, the faces are looked at, so that later on the selecting of stones is helped by knowing the undersides. An experienced hedger will never put down a stone he has picked up, because he knows exactly where and how it will be laid, remembering from when he set out the stones.
The late Cyril Roberts of St Keverne, champion hedger, remarked “You have to see the job finished before your start, and work accordingly.”
He also said that “A good hedge will put a sheep on its back,” and “All the good hedgers are in the churchyard.”
The Westcountry hedgers' saying that "every stone has seven sides" has much truth in it, excepting in the slate country on the North Coast where they say that "every stone has five sides, four to build with and one to throw it away into the hedge", meaning if it does not fit, it should be added to the fill. This is because the choices with shale or slate stones, with their two parallel faces, are different.
A lump of stone, being more or less a cube, has six sides with four rotations to each, totalling twenty-four different faces; but usually there are only about seven useful ways of placing the stone in the hedge. Many hedgers, reusing old hedging stone or rebuilding a gap, will carefully sort the stone so that they can see the original face of each; this is done by identifying the signs of weathering, lichens etc, on the outside face. They will seek to build with the same face outwards, and this reduces to four the possible different ways that the stone is best laid. Only an experienced hedger with inherited aptitude finds this easy. Novices find the rotation of the stone to find its correct position difficult, and do not persist enough and so are not using stones in the place that they should go. As a general rule, the hedger tries to lay every stone with its longest axis set into the hedge. With long narrow stones, this results in the smallest face, often only 100mm (4")wide showing in the face. Some hedge inspectors, in their ignorance, condemn a stone which is laid thus, thinking it is just a small stone no longer than wide put in the wrong place.
Most hedgers work on a face about 4m (4yds) long which gives a good range of possibilities of placing stones, without requiring the hedger to walk too far forth and back. For a new hedge, there are usually hedgers working both sides of the hedge at once. Two hedgers cannot work easily on the same length of hedge, excepting where they are working on opposite sides. A very experienced hedger, just laying the stones, can keep two equally experienced helpers fully employed selecting and handing stones to him. He will be working on a length of 4 or 5 metres to give him the necessary variety of places to lay stone, which he will keep in his mind's eye all the time; so whatever stone he is handed, he will know instantly where to put it. This is the fastest way of building a new hedge and is a good way of teaching apprentices in sorting stone.
There is an inherited knack in handling stone. We say in Cornwall that "if you can move a stone a quarter-of-an-inch you can move it anywhere". This is because it can usually be rolled or pivoted without having to take the whole weight of the stone. It is easily rolled with the aid of levers and pivoted by insertion of a small stone underneath at the centre of gravity. The secret of moving large stones is to "let some air under 'un", because once a stone has been lifted enough to wedge a smaller stone under one edge, the natural suction is removed and the character of the underneath of the stone can be seen and read. A large stone should never be dropped down on its flat side, to make for heavier work later on. Although today the use of a tractor fore-end loader makes moving stone much easier, the skills of rolling and pivoting remain important in the final positioning of larger stones. Certainly there was never any need to use brute force in handling stone, and there is even less need today, no matter what temptation there might be at the time. Too many hedgers have had to retire early with a strained back. Stones should always be rolled to between the hedger's feet before lifting. Heavy stones should be moved by the use of a crowbar. Others light enough to be lifted may be raised off the ground using bended knees with the stone between the feet. Then the stone should be lifted by straightening the knees. When the stone is at about thigh level, it should be as close to the body as convenient, even resting on the thighs or tummy. In walking with it, the knees should be slightly bent so that if the grip on the stone is lost and it falls to the ground, it will miss the feet. Have a look at the Guild's Health & Safety leaflet. A low cost aid to handling stones is to use a handmade tripod. A good example is that made by of the Guild's stewards out of three 10ft x 2inch galvanised steel water pipes. One end of each pipe was flattened and drilled to take a 1” hole, a 1” diameter bolt was threaded through the ends of the three pipes to make a tripod. The stone is suspended by a length of chain from an endless-chain pulley. Care should be taken never to allow the stone to be hung outside the tripod base.
A trench, the width of the hedge base, is dug out to subsoil, or to 20cm (8") below ground level whichever is greater.
Excavated turf and topsoil are piled separately from subsoil and fill, for use in topping the hedge.
Following delivery and inspection of the stone, the turf and vegetation along the strip where the hedge is to be built is dug out in a manner to preserve the thick tobs (tubbans, sods, turfs, turves) for topping the finished hedge. Then the remaining topsoil is removed down to subsoil or 'country' level. This topsoil, and the grass and other plants, is also put to one side to be used to top off the new hedge; this is to restart the natural wildlife in it, and in time makes roots to bind the hedge together. Setting out the line of the trench is done with sticks from a nearby hedge or by the placing of stones, every 3m (10ft) or so.
Many hedgers use a line while others strongly maintain that a line should not be used in building a Cornish hedge, because it gets in the way and slows the job down. A skilled Cornish hedger can build a dead straight hedge without using a line. Much of the charm of the Cornish landscape is due to the hedges not being perfectly straight but tending to follow the lie of the land. An example of a new hedge being built without a line is beside the main Penzance-Helston road in Ashton.
The width of the trench must be the same as the ultimate hedge height plus about 40cm (16") allowing 20cm (8") each side for working margin. The trench may be usefully dug by a mechanical digger and must be excavated until the 'country' is exposed. Where this is of a clay-shale nature (rab), the excavator can finish the shallow trench with a level bottom, making the laying of grounders easier. Where the country is rock, the excavator will be unable to clear out the soil from between some of the buried boulders; and this must be done by hand using a shovel. The site is now ready to begin laying the grounders (foundation stones).
Grounders (foundation stones) are seated into the trench bed with their biggest and lumpiest side downward. No stone or fill packing is inserted under grounders before laying.
Grounders should be laid with their lumpiest side downward and then their flattest face available to the front. Although this used to be done by hand, today the use of a tractor with a bucket or a mechanical digger is usual for many jobs. Sometimes the tripod is more convenient, especially on restricted sites.
The grounders are selected and laid so that the touching sides interlock and so that the upper adjoining surfaces are at roughly the same level, though this is not as important, with oddly-sized stone, as that each grounder should be resting on a solid unyielding base.
Working on both sides, the grounders are laid on the trench bottom at least 200mm (8") deep, and always with their bottoms below plough level and on to subsoil. Where this is into rab, the excavated rab is cast into the centre of the trench as a start for the filling of the hedge. Where the ground is peaty, the trench must be deepened until firm ground is reached. They must always be set deep enough to stop them moving outwards when the field is ploughed.
Grounders are set in to the correct angle, interlocking with each other. For the typical 1.5m (5ft) hedge, this is the angle of Cornish shovel blade to haft, and proportionally less for lower hedges, more for higher hedges.
For the typical hedge, about 1.5m (5ft) finished height, the grounders must be laid with their top surface slanting inwards at the same angle as the head of a Cornish shovel to its handle. In teaching beginners, using an actual Cornish shovel is the way to show them how to lay the grounders. This is easy to visualise, by laying a shovel flat on the ground, face downwards, with the back of the blade upwards with its tip pointing towards the hedge. The upper surface of the grounders must be set inwards at the same angle to the ground as the surface of the shovel blade. For hedges of less height, the angle is proportionally less, ie a hedge 1m (3ft) high should have its grounders set at two-thirds of this angle, and a hedge 2m (6' 6") high requires a slightly greater angle, about a third more. Although these angles are not critical within five degrees or so, to lay grounders flat or at another angle, perhaps ten degrees different, results in a poor hedge structure which will not last.
At least half the fill between the grounders is free of stones exceeding 25mm (1"). This is rammed hard around each grounder in layers not more than 100mm (4"), well consolidated, with the stonier part of the fill being put to the middle and well rammed.
The centre of the hedge should be filled as the work on the grounders proceeds on both sides. The fill is traditionally rab.
Rab should be rammed hard, using an iron bar, around the base of each grounder to make sure that they will not move when the weight of the hedge comes on them. Then the centre of the hedge is filled with rab to level with the top surface of the stones in layers not more than 100mm (4") and each layer consolidated by walking over it, pressing down hard with the heels. It should be made so firm that nothing “gives” however hard it is tramped.
Grounders may only be laid on edge as shiners if the width and depth of the stone are each more than one-quarter of the height of the stone. Shiners are at least 150mm (6") thick at the top. No shiner should be laid alongside another, but with ordinary grounders between.
If the grounder is very flat, the temptation to put it on its edge must be rejected because it is likely to move later on. Similarly a very large flat surface should not be left uppermost because it will be difficult to key in the next row on it. The only exceptions are for those hedge styles which use boulders 1m (3ft) high, and perhaps half this in width, and where the hedge is less than 1.5m (5ft) high; here the sheer size and weight allows for the stones to be put "on edge", as the principal part of the hedge, called shiners and more nearly upright, but still with their outside face set inwards at a angle of about 10-20 degrees from the vertical. Stones should only be used as shiners where the width of the base of the stone is more than one-quarter of its height. For less skilled hedgers the base width of a shiner should exceed one third of its height.
For new hedges, a stone culvert not exceeding 150mm diameter is built at each low spot.
In hilly Cornwall with its high rainfall, our hedgebanks play a big part in preventing run-off from gathering and forming floods. Nowadays the bigger fields mean that hedges are more important for this than they used to be. For many years the County Council has included culverts in their specifications for roadside hedges. Without culverts, Cornish hedges tend to pond up the water running off the land on the up-hill side of the hedge. The grounders are set well in down to subsoil and the only way that water can get quickly through a hedge is via rabbit and mouse holes, or over the top. In both instances, the passage of water through the hedge takes with it some of the soil core and can eventually make a large breach in the hedge. The uninterrupted flow of storm water across and down a field that has been recently ploughed carries with it a large load of topsoil which causes problems when it is deposited on roads or in streams. Thus our hedges play an important part in keeping the topsoil in the fields where it belongs, provided the hedges do not hold up the water so much that the hedge itself is washed away. The remedy is to provide culverts that are big enough to take some of the water without being so large as to cause problems downstream. The County Council has found by experience that a 150mm diameter culvert is a good compromise. This should be built using the same stone as has been provided for building the hedge. The culverts are laid at the low spots of the hedge where water is likely to accumulate. This depends on the orientation of the hedge, the amount of ground uphill of the hedge and the permeability of the soil. The relevant grounders have to be laid with enough space between for the stones of the culverts. The stones forming the floor of the culvert are set with their tops level with the field each side. The stones forming the sides of the culvert are laid on these stones, leaving a 150mm gap for the water to pass. Finally further stones are placed on these, forming the roof of the culvert. It is important that the culvert is built strongly enough to take the huge pressure from the hedge above it.
The batter is built in an inwards (concave) curve.
Building to a batter is perhaps the most skilled part of building a hedge. The downwards pressure of the top half of the hedge tends to push outwards the lower part. It can be likened to the way that a stone arch holds itself together only it is on its side.
The amount of curve in the batter has been handed down from hedger to hedger over generations of Cornishmen. Since the hedging competitions stopped from lack of competitors, the way that the batter is built has in many instances degenerated so that it no longer serves the purpose of stopping the stones from bursting out of the hedge. Many hedgers know only of a straight taper, this obviously does not function as a proper batter and builds a structural weakness into the hedge which inevitably shortens the period before it needs repair. A well-built hedge with proper batter is guaranteed for at least 100 years, and will probably last far longer, without attention. A common misunderstanding arises from the fact that old hedges tend to lose their curved batter as the stones settle very slowly outwards in time. Eventually the hedge appears to have been built with a straight batter.
The batter that the Code of Good Practice recommends has been derived from examination of many of the profiles or forms that hedgers have inherited from their predecessors, and from the statements of professional hedgers. In today's conditions, the description of the batter must be intelligible to non-hedgers who are perhaps meeting hedges for the first time. In the Grampound area many of the hedges were built to the “54321” method. This rough calculation provided, with the typical hedge of 1.5m (5ft), for the batter to be 5 inches in the first foot from the bottom of the hedge, 4 inches in the next foot, 3 in the next and so on until the top foot which is nearly vertical. Unfortunately this produces insufficient batter in the lower half of the hedge and results in a much weaker hedge. Today it is of historical note only. A weird and impracticable way of working out the batter is in the standard hedge specification issued by the Highways Department of Cornwall County Council in 2004 which specifies a batter built to a 40m radius. This requires the hedger to measure out a circle with a diameter of 80m, then to copy a section of the circumference the height of the hedge, turn it 90 degrees so that it is upright, then use that short bit of curve as a guide to the batter. Apart from the absurdity of expecting the hedger actually to do this, the resultant curve does not provide the traditional batter.
At one-quarter of the hedge height, the hedge width is three-quarters of the base width. The inward curve continues up to not higher than three-quarters of hedge height, the batter getting less with each row so at this height the hedge is one-half of the base width. Thereafter the face of the hedge is vertical, or outwards by one-tenth of the top hedge width, to the top.
Using these measurements, a profile or form is easily made out of a piece of plywood which can be held against the hedge as it is being built to check that the batter is correct. To do this properly, a bubble level must be fixed to the profile to ensure that it is held upright. This is fine in theory but the author's experience is that the profile is usually ignored, either because the hedger is not skilled enough to make a good batter, or because the hedger is so good that the profile is not needed. Rumour has it that a hedger's son who recently inherited his father's profiles remade them with a straight profile because he found building to a curved profile too difficult. This is one of the ways that bad practice is introduced.
In some parts of Cornwall, the top third or even half of the hedge has parallel sides with a width of one-half the base width. In some areas with especially agile sheep, the top quarter of the hedge sides are built so that they lean outwards by one-tenth of the hedge height each side; sometimes this is accompanied by a row of projecting coping stones (see below). Some hedgers deliberately narrow the hedges at the top so that they have less filling and compacting to do, but this produces an unsound job.
As few stones as possible are used to even up gaps between tops of grounders. Fillers are laid with longest side into the hedge, slanting in at the same angle as the grounders, and levelling up the row of grounders horizontally along the hedge, ready for the next row.
With the grounders laid, and the middle filled in with rab and rammed, the next row is laid on both sides of the hedge. This is called the "filler" row because it fills in the uneven gaps between the tops of the grounders, the top of this row being the same height as the top of the highest grounder. Where the grounders are very assorted, the stones in the filler row are liable to be of a variety of sizes. The bigger the filler stone used to even up the spaces between the tops of unevenly-sized grounders, the better, rather than a lot of small ones. Because the need is individual, experienced hedgers take this opportunity to use some of the stones that would otherwise prove to be awkward in the subsequent rows. They will also seek to introduce each stone from behind the grounders so that the grounders wedge them in; this requires much skill because the result must seem as if the filler stones have been laid between the grounders and not behind them, otherwise the next row will not fit properly. The job is especially difficult when shiners are used as grounders as the filler stone may sink behind and push the shiner outwards. Keeping a proper batter is difficult when large grounders or shiners are used. On sloping ground where the hedge runs along the contours, the lower side of the hedge is built up until level with the upper side, both sides are then built together.
Filling the centre of the hedge
Sufficient fill, containing less than one-tenth of stones exceeding 25mm (1”), is dumped along the hedge centre. Leaving the stonier part of the fill in the middle, enough for a layer not more than 100mm (4”) is dragged by hand to the back of each stone, and well consolidated.
As each row is laid, the fill is added at no more than 10cm (4") at a time before being rammed down tight with the rammer; in fact, adding at about 6cm (2½") is quicker because the rab consolidates easier. Ramming the rab into the crevices at the back of each stone, and in between them is especially important. Rab rams down nice and solid, unlike topsoil which always has that slightly fluffy or bouncy feel to it. This ramming of the fill is vitally important to the stability of the hedge, and cannot be over-emphasised; an easy rule of thumb is that every stone must have at least twenty consolidating thumps on the rab behind it. The most thorough way of ramming is to start off by holding the club hammer by its head, and ramming down behind at the bottom of the stones, steadying the stone with the other hand. Then when the rab is filled to near the top of each stone, to switch to holding the club hammer by its handle and ramming vertically with its head. Hedgers in a hurry may add rab in 150mm (6") layers for speed but inevitably fail to consolidate it properly. Many of today's hedging contracts fail to specify that rab must be used as fill, with the result that as the contractors are free to use topsoil, they do so because it is easier than rab to handle, especially if very dry or very wet. Topsoil is easier to use than rab, but is more difficult to consolidate properly.
A non-traditional, but quick method, is to tip carefully the rab on to the top of the hedge with a small tractor bucket so that the continuous heap is clear back from the hedge face. Then, as each stone is laid, the rab is brought forward by hand to the rear of the stone and up level with its top. When a convenient length, about 4-6m (4-6 yds), has been built, the hedger climbs on top of the hedge. Facing the outer edge of the hedge, he steps with the soles of his feet together on the top row of stones, with his heels pressing down the rab behind each stone. As he does this on each stone in turn, he feels through his feet as to whether the stone has been correctly bedded in, or whether it makes a small movement, indicating that it was definitely wrongly positioned. This is a good test for an instructor to use as the novice proceeds with each row. Although seeming simple, there is skill in placing the feet correctly, and in putting right the stones which are badly laid. While this works well with small stones, those larger than 150mm (6”) in height require consolidating by hand. For a hedger who is not naturally agile or well-balanced, it may be dangerous to climb on the hedge. Badly-laid and wobbly stones are also a hazard underfoot. Treading is not as good as proper hand-ramming.
Each layer of rab down the centre of the hedge must be well tamped down, the same methods are used. Using the digger bucket to press down the fill does not do an effective job, and is not recommended.
The row above the grounders and fillers is of the next biggest stone to the size of the grounders, and is laid with the lower edge of each stone level with the outer edge of the grounder or filler underneath, leaning inwards slightly less than the grounder. The faces are laid flush so as to stop the more agile breeds of sheep climbing up the hedge, they easily make use of a tiny ledge of 12mm (½"). Care is taken to lay every stone in this row according to the batter. Stone must be laid on stone, with no earth in between. Only by laying each stone so that it interlocks with its neighbours will the action of the curved batter work properly and bind the side of the hedge together. Any stone that can subsequently be removed once the hedge is built has been laid incorrectly.
As the rows are laid, each stone is angled to follow the batter and laid with, as far as is possible, its smallest face outwards. This is so that it cannot come out of the hedge by itself, and is where much of the skill of hedging lies. A useful hint is that when put down in its row, the stone ought to fit into the stones below and beside it, like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. If it does not, or seems to want to rock on one place, it is not the stone for there. Either throw the stone back down on to the ground, or if it is totally unsuitable for anywhere in the hedge, lose it in the fill in the middle of the hedge. But remember that if you are repairing a gap, “every stone has its place, and every place its stone”.
An experienced hedger will know what is meant by "if a stone looks awkward, you put another alongside"; the hedger is always looking ahead so that he does not leave a problem for himself in the next row. He has an empathy with the stones and will often say that the stones talk to him, each will tell him where it wants to go. He has in his mind a mental picture of the hedge and of the stones in it, and of the stones on the ground. Every so often he will take the shovel and use its length to measure roughly the relative heights of the rows as he builds them; a line is never used because it gets in the way and, with a good hedger's eye, is unnecessary. He remembers especially the shape of the previous stone of the row he is building, and the shape of the tops of the stones in the row below for a metre (yard) or so that he is going to come to soon in the row he is laying. He also watches the tops of the current row, so as to avoid problems in the next. He remembers the shape of the ground underneath the hedge, with its dips and ridges to keep his row level. He is able mentally to fit stones on the ground into the row he is laying before he picks them up, and his mind will be working always a metre or so ahead and in the row above. He will judge the batter by eye and get it right. He will lay each stone by thumping it confidently in place because he knows beforehand that it will fit. This skill is mostly inherent, and some people will never achieve success, others come to it naturally while many come to it with the right training and experience. In hedging, bad habits are easy for the learner to pick up, and very difficult to get rid of. They show themselves in the finished hedge.
Part of every stone in the hedge should be wedged in by another in the same row, or in the row above or below. If this is not done, the stones that are not properly keyed in will gradually work outwards and start a gap in the hedge. One of the tests of good hedging is that no stone below the top row can be loosened and removed by hand. To get this result, adjoining stones should mesh into each other as much as possible and the stone on the next row should fit neatly across the joint and hold it in place.
Always in building a hedge there will be what we call "ugly stones". These are stones of awkward shape which are very difficult to fit in when laying the rows. The solution is deliberately to build places for each of them in its proper row, otherwise they will be left over at the end of the job. These may have to be trigged to hold them in place. On the other hand there are what we call "easy stones." These are stones that are shaped so that they will, when turned the correct ways, fit in many different places on the hedge. The temptation is to use them first but they must be kept for where they are the only stones that will fit. It is almost as if every stone has its proper place, and for every place there is really only one stone that should go there. Of course this is seldom literally true, but it is a maxim always to be borne in mind, especially in repairing a hedge. Two wide or two narrow stones should not be laid alongside each other; the widths should be mixed otherwise problems will be created in later rows. One of the important skills in selecting and laying stones in each row is to have a thought all the time to building the next row. It is stupid to fit the stones, however brilliantly, to the previous row if they later have to be pulled apart because the seating for the next row has been ignored.
Each row of stone is smaller than the row below
Stone comes in all sorts and sizes. Naturally if you put a big stone on top of a small one, it will have a tendency to fall to the ground. So it is more sensible to put a small stone on top of a big one and this simple principle is used in building Cornish hedges. First you need to know how many courses you are going to build. This depends on the sizes of the stone and the height of the hedge above the filler course, and is a skill not always easily acquired. Having decided this, the stone is sorted into the sizes needed for each course. Not all stones will fit neatly, and some will have to be “dressed”, ie shaped with a hedging hammer. Because of the danger of flying chips, safety spectacles should be worn. Goggles may be safer for the eyes but are awkward to work with and so are indirectly a hazard in themselves.
Some hedgers lay their stones in “random coursing”. Often this is either stated in the contract specification or is permitted by default in an inadequate specification. Some types of stone lend themselves more easily to random coursing. Random coursing done properly with the right stone is all right but more often than not, random coursing, done poorly, is used to cheapen the contract and save money. A cheap job may seem a good idea, but as most hedgers know, the resulting hedge ends up by being poorly built and needing repair before very long. The Guild has examined many hedges, both old and new, with random coursing and is certain that it should be allowed only with appropriate stone in exceptional circumstance. It is not included in the Code of Good Practice for Cornish Hedges.
Stones are laid with the longest face running inwards into the hedge
This is to give stability to the hedge, but is often ignored by the “cowboys”. Note that in Cornish hedging there are no “through stones” reaching from one side to the other (as in drystone walls) because our hedges are built as a flexible structure with each side independent of the other.
And are laid vertically (pitched) unless the stone is better laid flat or herringbone.
For most types of stone, pitched hedges are inherently stronger than where stone is laid flat or herringbone. The well-known exception is in the slatey areas around Delabole where the herringbone pattern is the usual way of building with the slatey material which is available. The herringbone pattern is often used elsewhere but is suitable only with stone that is shaped flatter than an ordinary saucer. The Cornish word for hedge is Kee, from which the English word quay is derived. Old accounts also use the word kee for quays (eg at St Ives). The older quays in Cornwall are build in stone laid in pitched courses, clearly demonstrating that this is the strongest way of using stone. . Some of the shales found in Cornwall are better laid flat than pitched and this can be confirmed by looking at older hedges in the locality concerned. Recently built hedges are no guide because so many have been poorly built.
All rows are straight and are horizontal or follow the average run of the ground.
The courses should not wander up and down. Every stone in a course should be the same height, so that the top and bottom of each course are parallel. The courses are laid parallel with the ground, except in fields too steep to plough when they may be laid level.
No vertical joint extends for more than two rows. All overlaps are more than one-quarter of the running length of the stone excepting slate which is laid with each row interlocking with that below.
The stones in all the rows are laid so that the middle of each stone sits on top of the crack between the two beneath. Of course the hedging stone is usually much too irregular in shape to allow this exact fit, but the overlap should normally be at least one third of the running length of the stone. Where the edges of the stones are blocky and of a good shape, then the overlap with the row below may perhaps be only a quarter of the running length of the stone. Carew, writing in 1602 said that "In looking at the few fragments of 'dry walling' that remain, one cannot but admire the thoughtful way in which the stones were laid - perhaps thousands of years ago - so as to 'break the joints' and bind each other." This "breaking the rows" makes sure that there is not a vertical crack or weakness in the hedge structure. He also observed that most of the stones in each row ran with the country, with each row running parallel with the ones below and above. This is called "making your rows" and these two terms make up the learner instruction: "Make your rows and break your rows.
Each stone is laid interlocking with the stones alongside and with the rows below and above, with no gaps. All stones are laid stone-on-stone.
Novices often give way to the temptation of putting a thin layer of earth or turf between the rows, saying it is to “level up”. This immediately builds a serious weakness into the hedge because it makes the purpose of having a batter completely useless. As described earlier, the batter acts as an arch on its side, so that the weight, about a tonne per metre run, of the top half of the hedge pressing down on the lower half, causes the stones to lock themselves together, stopping the tendency of the hedge sides to burst outwards. Inserting a layer of earth or turf allows the stones to slide outwards, collapsing the hedge.
All stones are load-bearing, and are so laid as to be incapable of individual extraction.
The result of laying stone-on-stone is that every stone is load-bearing and, excepting those in the top two rows, cannot be pulled out by hand. Experience has shown that a hedge that is built badly enough to allow stones (excepting those in the top two rows) to be pulled out is certain to be substandard in other ways.
A row of projecting stones may be laid below the top course as coping stones to deter sheep or deer. No other stones protrude beyond the line of hedge.
In sheep country, and especially along much of the north coast cliffs, a row of coping stones is laid at 1.2m (4ft) and topped off by 0.4m of turf (18") to hold down the coping stones. These are laid in at a downwards angle, with about 150mm projecting, so that they do not tend to work themselves outwards. Coping stones were also laid in hedges around the parks of big houses, for example Godolphin and Trelowarren. Whether they were for fallow deer or sheep is not certain because some which are said to be for deer appear to be too slight to keep deer in. Apart from coping stones, no other stone should project beyond the line of hedge as it would provide a step for escaping animals.
In the absence of coping stones, the top two courses are pitched or laid Jack-and-Jill (herringbone) as done locally.
The reason for this is that stones laid on the flat are inherently less secure than stones pitched or laid herringbone, and the two topmost rows especially so.
The top course is often differently laid to the others. The top row(s) of stones may be laid flat, pitched (on edge) or herringbone (in two opposite slanting rows). Most hedgers agree that the top row should not be laid flat because they are more easily dislodged and take longer for the turf to grow into the hedge. When the stones available for the top row are more than about 75mm (3") thick, they should be pitched. If they are narrower, then they should be laid herringbone, although frequently they will be pitched even if they are only 10mm (½") thick. The problem with this is that they dislodge easily when one of them gets loose. Whether pitched or herringboned, the top row should be wedged tightly together. Note that this is difficult with stones laid flat.
Trigging (wedging a stone with a small one) is kept to a minimum, at the back only and no stone is trigged twice. Hard stone, and not fill, is used for trigging.
Where a stone projects inwards beyond the stones below, it must be supported by another small stone tightly wedged below it on the inside of the hedge. Small stones used in this way are called trigs. Only hard stones which will not crush are used for trigs. No stone should be trigged (wedged) twice; otherwise the stone will tend to be pushed out of place by the fill as the hedge settles. Stones must never be trigged from the outside. It is a description of a bad hedger when it is said that he has to trig his stones both ends.
For new rural hedges, a layer of plastic-covered wire netting should be laid on the rab across the hedge top under the top course of stone. The wire must not protrude from the hedge face.
This is to stop rabbits from burrowing down into the hedge, and also strengthens the top of the hedge, particularly in the urban situation
Fill top is domed so that the centre height above the top course is one-third of the width of the hedge top.
After the top row is laid and consolidated, the centre of the hedge is topped up with rab in a domed shape so that, as the hedge beds down and settles with the action of the seasons, the top of the hedge will still be 200mm (8") above the top row. The middle of the top of the hedge should be built up more for a wide hedge than for a narrow one; as a guide, the middle line should be one-third higher than the edge. Usually the hedger lays a row of 150mm thick diamond-shaped tobs, kept from the digging-out of the trench for the hedge, along the top row of stones, then builds up the centre of the hedge still further with as much of the earth saved from the excavating as it will take, smacking it down with the shovel to consolidate it.
Extra turf may be taken from foot of hedge, or nearby scrub, 150mm (6") thick, and placed securely on hedge top. The turf is beaten down to consolidate, and is covered with soil leaving a 150mm (6") strip of grass each side.
Then a layer of tobs is placed all over the top of the hedge. Where the new hedge is to be of high conservation value, some of this turf may be sourced from an old hedge or from a broadleaf woodland edge; this brings in tiny invertebrates as well as plants.
Some hedgers place the turf grass-side down to stop the grass drying out. This is also done if thorns or trees are planted on the hedge top.
Some hedgers will lay the tobs topside down; this has two purposes, firstly to hide the grass so that the cattle will not pull the tobs off the hedge, and secondly to keep the grass alive during a period of dry weather. Turf should be put upside down where thorns are to be planted, and the thorns planted through the turf. Where the hedge is built primarily as a livestock barrier, the top of the hedge may be planted with hawthorn or blackthorn, according to which species predominates in the locality. In heathland areas, seedling gorse is often to be found, growing naturally, and this is useful for planting on the hedgetop.
In repairing gaps, nearby thorn growth is layered across the gap before turf is put on.
Layering is where a nearby branch is pulled down, partly cut through near the base if necessary, and weighed or pegged down to the top of the hedge in the middle of the repaired gap. This is so that the branch roots itself and grows up in the gap.
If the top of the hedge is planted with hawthorn and/or blackthorn, the plants are 30/40cm (12"/16") tall, transplanted 1+1 or pot-grown, and planted 400mm (16") apart in one row through the turf in winter, then pruned to 200mm (8"). Plants of native origin and local provenance are used if available.
Plants should be sourced from Cornish native stock, containerised, well grown and not less than 0.5m (20") in height. Although they are cheaper to buy and plant, bare-rooted plants have much less chance of surviving. The thorns should be planted 400mm (16") apart in one row through the turf, then immediately pruned to 200mm (8") above ground to improve drought resistance. Many nurseries recommend closer planting and in two rows, but they are confusing the planting on hedge top with the planting of a hedgerow on ground level. The tops of hedges, especially new ones, are very dry, and unless planted during the months of November and December, plants have difficulty in surviving.
To encourage wildlife in rural hedges, small pieces of turf the size of a golf ball are rammed into crevices every third row upwards and the same distance along the length of the new work.
This helps the hedge to knit together quicker, and gives a head-start to the colonisation of the hedge with wildlife. The pieces of turf can come from anywhere close by and no special care should be taken to get particular plants.
Remaining fill and soil is levelled off and the site left tidy.
Finally the site is cleared and restored to its original profile, with surplus vegetative and woody material being dumped in an un-farmed area nearby to allow survival of invertebrates and other wildlife. It should not be burned. Note that no seeding or planting should be done, other than specified above.
Then the new hedge is usually protected by erecting a barbed wire fence as close to the hedge as possible, with treated posts 3m (10ft) apart. One strand of wire is enough for adult cattle, two for lowland sheep breeds but three, or pig netting with top and bottom barbed, for the hill breeds. Alternatively half-round poles may be built horizontally into the hedge at one or two courses below the top, cut to project one metre each side of the hedge. One for cattle or two for hill sheep, strands of barbed wire are stapled on to the underside.
Where the hedge is below 1.2m (4 ft) high, the fence should be temporarily set out 0.6m (2 ft) to stop cattle from rubbing the top row away before it is set. Alternatively to prevent the unset tobs along the top of the hedge being pulled out by cattle, they may be smeared with cattle dung. Hedges that are repaired or built in the autumn are set by the time housed cattle are let out in the spring.
If the new hedge is joining an existing one, care must be taken to avoid any gap between the new grounder and the old. If the new hedge has a free-standing end, like a gateway, the grounders across the end of the hedge must be laid first, starting with the two corners where more substantial, solid and squarish stones must be used, and as the hedge is built up, the better stone is used for the quoins. This is because the end of the hedge has to support the rest of the hedge. The gate post should always be set before the hedge end is built. Otherwise in digging the hole for the post, the setting for the grounders is weakened.
While to build the quoins square with the end of the hedge is quicker, it is easy for passing vehicles to damage them; a much better practice is to build them in rounded form, this needs more skill but is less critical in requiring good stones. In building a gateway, it is better to use small stones instead of rab as a fill, bedding down the stones with a lime mortar. The end of the hedge should be battered just the same as the rest of the hedge, and the narrow space between the hedge and gatepost blocked with several stones. An exception to this practice is where large boulders have been dug up and set as huge gateposts, being drilled for the gate irons. These massive gateposts, once bedded in properly, are big and heavy enough to act as hedge ends and the hedge should be built right up to the boulder.
Great care should be taken in the siting of gateways, bearing in mind the need for use all round the year, to accommodate changes in tractors and implements, crop rotations, breeds of different farm animals and especially the lie of the land, avoiding the soft wet places or where there is surface water runoff from the fields, or where prevailing winds blow through. Remember that existing gateways in Cornwall may have been there for several thousand years, serving much smaller fields of which there is nowadays little or no evidence. They may seem to be in the wrong place today, but there may be advantages which are still important though not immediately apparent.
Whether the rows above the grounders are laid flat, vertically (pitched) or diagonally (herringbone) depends on the nature of the stone and the local style. Traditional opinions vary widely throughout Cornwall, and are strongly held. Some so-called traditions are only the figments of a modern hedger's imagination. Usually there is a sound reason for a local style based on the type of stone which is available nearby. A general principle is that a stone should "be laid in its own bed", in other words the natural grain in the stones should all run the same way. Where there is a hedging style which has been used by a landed estate in most of its hedges, the reason for it is more likely to be associated with the type of stone from a quarry owned by the estate than by a particular whim of the landowner, although this was not always so. Even today we have the problem of large concerns imposing inappropriate styles throughout Cornwall, in obvious conflict with local style. The more subtle differences in style are sometimes difficult to appreciate, yet they may be necessary for the hedge to be built strongly. There is a small but real difference between the traditional hedging style at Zennor and at Pendeen, only five miles away. There is a big change in hedging styles where the granite gives way to the shilletty shales and slates, or to the quartz stones which, having no regular grain or shape, are a challenge to any hedger to build a hedge that lasts. This is achieved by intimate local knowledge and individual skill of the true craftsman.
Where the stone is of a type with a majority of thin flattish stones or slates 150-200mm (6"-8") across and less than about 75mm (3") thick, necessarily different styles have evolved. The stones are usually laid vertically as "pitchers" or in herringbone fashion, called Jack-&-Jill, Darby-&-Joan, Kersey Way or John-upon-Joan. The herringbone style is where the lower row is laid on edge at about 50-70 degrees from the horizontal and the next row at the same angle in the opposite direction. With this difficult type of stone, a good herringbone style hedge can be built 250mm (10") lower than where the rows are laid flat or vertically, because of the increased stability of the top row. Hedges which are not alongside fields can be built of smaller stones because they do not get rubbed by farm livestock. Exceptions to this are for roads where cattle and sheep are often driven along, and for hedges which are liable to have people climbing over them. Often old hedges some 1.5m (5') high were built of ten rows of slatey stone, laid herringbone style in five double rows. This style relies on the stones being of roughly similar shape and size within each row. It is an easy style to build in a rough way, with each stone leaning on its neighbour but, to make a good hedge, care must be taken to interlock each stone into the space between the edges of the stones of the row below. To do this keying in, the hedger must have an appreciation of the shape of each stone and of this space it has to go into, and select them accordingly. It is important to keep the stone at the same angle all along the hedge, in each row and for each row to be kept level all the way along. With herringboning, the need for proper batter and for good ramming of the fill are more important for the future stability of the hedge than where larger stone is used. This style is often abused by putting a layer of fill between the rows instead of sorting the stone and interlocking them by putting a smaller one above a larger one and vice-versa. A well-built herringbone style hedge will last as long as any other, but a poorly built one will fall down in a surprisingly short time, much sooner than other styles. In sheep country, and especially along much of the north coast cliffs, a row of coping stones is laid at 1.2m (4ft) and topped off by 0.4m of turf (18") to hold down the coping stones. These are laid in at a downwards angle, with about 150mm projecting outwards and slightly upwards, so that they do not tend to work themselves outwards.
Building hedges on steeply sloping ground can be a challenge to a new hedger. Preparation and the laying of grounders and fillers is no different but successive rows may be laid "with the country", that is parallel with the ground, or laid level. When laid with the country, the job is no different from building on an ordinary level field. When laid level, short rows are needed to compensate for the sloping ground and are sometimes called "false rows". These have to be laid with each false row reducing in height according to the slope of the ground.
Whether to lay with the country or level depends on the size and shape of the stone, the style, and the slope of the ground. Cornish hedges are usually laid with the country up to a slope of 15 degrees or more (about half the angle of a Cornish shovel) , that is where the land can be easily ploughed. Where the land is steeper, the rows may be laid level. Generally, the lumpier the stone, the more likely it is to be laid with the country. Stone hedges are often laid level no matter what the slope. Hedgers accustomed to building stone hedges will often continue to build sloping Cornish hedges level with the opinion that a hedge built with the country is weaker because there will always be a tendency for any stone that becomes loose to work itself out downhill. In fact a well-built Cornish hedge can run with the country and remain stable on any slope, as the grounders and filler course make a naturally stepped foundation.
Stone hedges in Cornwall are built differently to dry stone walls found in some other parts of Britain. They are built wherever in the county there is little soil and much surface stone, and typically the stone hedge is built in the same way as the Cornish hedge, only with small stones used for the fill in place of rab. Because of this flexible stone core, the outer stone facing is battered as in the Cornish hedge. It relies on its batter for stability. Consequently it cannot have "through-stones", as found in dry stone walls, as these would actually destroy its integrity as the two sides settle independently. Traditionally no stone is unnecessarily trimmed or broken in building Cornish field hedges. Much was used from the spoil heaps left by mining operations, or direct from the country in the form of "moor-stone", just as it turns up with the plough.
At Botallack, and elsewhere in Cornwall, stone hedges are built with stones the size and shape of grapefruit. At the other extreme, "tombstone" stone hedges are a single line of boulders. Between these extremes are many natural styles of boulder and stone hedge, using the available shapes and sizes of stone to best advantage. Single-stone hedges, built only one stone wide, are not common, but occur in many different parts of Cornwall, usually in granite country, especially in West Penwith and on Bodmin moor. They are similar to those built in West Scotland and were usually built in the 17th-19th centuries in the more recent inclosures. Although single-stone hedges look very fragile, a sheep will not climb them for fear of being injured by their collapse. There are few built today, although a skilled stone hedger would have no problems with their construction. One difficulty today is their vulnerability to damage by people, as it is almost impossible to climb over them without dislodging stones.
It would be tragedy for the many different types of stone hedge in Cornwall to be replaced by dry stone walls. About a century or so ago, some dry stone wallers were imported in to Bodmin Moor with the result that in places on the moor, dry stone walls are to be seen alongside stone hedges and Cornish hedges. People see them and get the impression that dry stone walls are widespread in and traditional to Cornwall. There is a danger of this idea spreading now there is so much interest in the craft of dry stone walling, with plenty of available instruction from dry stone wallers who have moved into the West Country.
A useful 150 page book on building and repairing dry stone walls called "Dry Stone Walling" is available from the local branch of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV in the 'phone book) or from the Dry Stone Walling Association. It contains a wealth of instruction which is practical and easy to understand; but the latest edition published in 2002 but should be read with some caution. Sometimes the author confuses stone hedges, where the core of the hedge is loose stone, with Cornish hedges, with their earth core. It is understandable that, not being local, he mistook the boulders cleared from fields at Zennor about thirty years ago and put on the prehistoric hedges as being the hedges themselves. As an outsider, he describes the reason for the concave batter in terms of being a "supposed theory" and fails to point out that a correct concave batter is essential to ensure that settlement tightens the stone cladding. He writes that "some Cornish hedgers pack a layer of soil on top of the stones to help bed in the next course" but fails to say that it allows the hedge to bulge out and collapse. He underplays the importance of using rab as the fill, suggesting that a soil and rubble mix, as used for the Welsh cloddiau will suffice. He writes that "the more regular the stone, the more poorly it binds, and trimmed granite hedges have a tendency to collapse outward or inward as the bank settles". Obviously the examples that he was basing his opinion on were badly built with poor fill badly rammed or an incorrect batter. The suggestion that shiners might be used on their flat as through-stones higher up the hedge shows a lack of understanding of the flexible structure of a Cornish hedge. Despite these criticisms, the book is essential reading and the author is to be congratulated for pulling together so much information from different parts of Britain.
Turf hedges are similar in shape and size to Cornish hedges but contain no stone. They are found in Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset, broadly the area lived in by the Celts until the Anglo-Saxon invasions in about 500-600 AD and occupation of Exeter. In Devon they are known as Devon banks. In Cornwall turf hedges are built where there is not enough local stone to build Cornish hedges, or where the underlying stone is of a poor character or merely too difficult to quarry. Often in borderline locations a hedge will have been built with a cladding of stone for its lower half and of turf for the top half. Today, when a turf hedge can be much more cheaply built by machine than a Cornish hedge, they can be found in localities formerly displaying only Cornish hedges, more often in areas of heavy clayey soils than where light sandy or peat soils are found, because of the better stability. Today, with high stocking levels, most turf hedges need to be fenced, otherwise they soon get gappy.
There are three ways of building a turf hedge, by hand, by tractor (or digger) and by the Wade method.
This is the traditional way and is probably uneconomic for building a length of new hedge in most circumstances. Nevertheless it is still being used for short lengths in locations of high landscape value open to the public. A new turf hedge has to be built in two stages. The first stage is up to half height, then the hedge has to be left for three or four winter months to allow it to settle and for the turf (tob or tubban in Cornish) to start to knit. It is inadvisable to start a turf hedge in the summer months because the tobs will die. It is best to build half in the autumn, and finish it in late winter.
The relationships of the dimensions are similar to those for a Cornish hedge; the height is the same as the base, with a similar batter up to halfway, and the top is half the width of the base. For turf hedges, the precise curve of the batter is unimportant but it should not to be allowed to bulge outwards.
It is often said that a turf hedge is built of the soil taken out of the ditch alongside. While this had an element of truth, it is not the whole story. Turf hedges are found in parts of Cornwall (the Culm measures in north Cornwall or Goonhilly on the Lizard are good examples) where there is clay and poor drainage, not much stone is available on the land and the land itself is not worth enough to buy stone. The enclosure of heathland, the naturally poorer land, often involved ditches alongside the new hedges. The soil from those ditches made a sufficient height, up to 1.0m (3ft) high, to provide a good hedge when a cut-and-laid thorn hedge was grown on top. Many turf hedges, however, are much higher, up to 2m (6ft), or more, in height and base width. When you look at them, you find that the filling is almost always subsoil, for example rab or shillett. Clearly this was deliberately brought in to make the hedge bigger.
So the first action is to decide the height of the hedge. This will normally be the same as others nearby, allowing for settlement, but can be higher or lower in special circumstances. The construction of the turf hedge relies on its outer skin of turves (tobs or tubbans). These are not the thin tile-shaped turves used on sports fields or for household lawns. Tobs are much larger and chunkier; they are cut by plough or dug up by the Cornish shovel which almost predetermines their size and shape, about 200mm x 150mm x 150mm (8"x 6"x 6"). The thickness, 150mm, means that soil-dwelling invertebrates and many of the plant species, other than grass, transplant without loss. They are cut by plough or by Cornish shovel are about 200mm x 150mm x 180mm. The grassed face is diamond shaped, not rectangular or square. This is achieved by cutting a parallel-sided strip 150mm wide, then slicing it up with a shovel at an angle of about 60°, at intervals of 200mm (8in) to make diamond-shaped turves. Trying to use the size of turf that people have for laying down lawns is useless because they are too small and cannot knit properly. The tobs stay on the shovel while being placed because they tend to fall to bits if lifted in hands. They cannot be any bigger, otherwise they split when dug up. The tobs are laid on the grass to form the first row of the hedge. They must be laid tight up against each other herringbone-fashion with the grass face outward. The subsoil is rammed hard behind them, the tubbans being held in place by a knee, foot or hand. Next, the top of this first row is trimmed inwards to about 30-35 degrees, using a shovel to get the angle as described for building Cornish hedges. The second row is laid and the space between the sides of the hedge is filled with rab to just above the height of the second row, and rammed in again. The top is trimmed inwards to an angle less than 30-35 degrees, how much depends on the height of the hedge. The angle reduces with each row, so that by the time the hedge is three-quarters built, the side of the hedge is vertical.
Successive rows are laid, rammed in tight and top-trimmed to get the batter, until the hedge is half the final height. It is then left for three or four months to settle and consolidate.
The top half of the hedge is built in similar manner, with the decreasing batter continuing up to three-quarters height, then vertically.
The top of the hedge is turfed in the same way as for a Cornish hedge except that usually more thorns are planted, especially for the lower hedges between 1-2m (1-2yds) high. They may be in two staggered rows, 30cm (12") apart in the row, 50cm (20") between the rows (8 plants per metre run of hedge). Fencing and other final works are as for the Cornish hedge.
Many farmers, when faced with the need to build a new turf hedge, succeed in doing so by using their tractor fitted with a hydraulic front bucket and plough, but need two years to do it. First the farmer has to find somewhere he can plough 150-250mm (6"-9") deep and still leave enough topsoil below this to make a useful pasture, and thus renew the material ploughed up. This he removes with his bucket to the site where he needs a new hedge. The topsoil need not be of good quality, and in some instances, rab is satisfactory. The test is whether the material will grow grass speedily. Using the tractor and bucket, it is heaped up along the desired hedge line in a continuous mound about 3m (3 yds) wide at the base, and as high as can be easily piled up. This is fenced off temporarily from livestock and left for a year to settle down and consolidate. Then the bucket is used to scoop up the soil, along the base of the heap, and put it on top, thus narrowing the base to about 1.5m (5ft) and increasing the height temporarily to 2m (2yds). This settles to 1.5m (5ft), with a straight or outwards (convex) batter dissimilar to that of the typical Cornish hedge. Because there will be no proper inwards (concave) batter, the hedge sides will tend to be unstable and be liable to slumping. Finally it is fenced with a permanent fence; this is essential. Hedges built by this method take at least five years to settle down and become fully covered with vegetation, but this way is the cheapest method and, from a wildlife viewpoint, may result in a surprising variety of native plants growing from seeds hidden in the soils.
Exceptionally a turf hedge may be made in one operation by a specially skilled digger driver who, using the correct bucket, is able to consolidate the pile of rab in layers not exceeding 300mm (1ft). The top is turfed over by hand with tobs 150mm thick. Hedges built by this method should be inspected, four months after being built, for slippage of the hedge sides.
Developed in Devon in the nineteen eighties by the then County Surveyor, Mr. Wade, this method was developed to provide new turf hedges, or Devon banks, alongside roads. It counteracts the problem with the traditional way of building turf hedges, when time has to be allowed for consolidation, by enclosing the hedge in sheets of welded mesh. This method is expensive but allows the hedge to be built in one operation, which may be more convenient for contractors who may, for example, be laying pipes across the countryside and have to operate within a narrow wayleave strip. A potential problem will remain when the mesh rusts away into sharp-pointed bits.
Where a gap in the hedge is to be made, and then rebuilt, the gap is made by removing the hedgebank and storing the turf separately from the infilling soil. Hedging stones found in the hedge may be of historical value and shall be stored separately for the farmer. If a pipeline trench is involved, the infilling of the trench must be properly consolidated so as to provide a stable foundation for the rebuilt hedge.
A turf-retaining frame is made the height of the original hedge, set up to make the hedge base as wide as its height. The top of the frame will be half the width of the base. The frame constructed of welded mesh sheets of 3.15mm diameter rod, galvanised to BS443, with mesh size 75mm x 150mm, is built to the original height of the hedge. The sheets are fixed together at 500mm intervals with 2mm diameter galvanised wire, overlapping by one mesh size.
The sides are kept at the correct distance apart by 2mm diameter galvanised wire ties fixed to the mesh at horizontal intervals (staggered) of 500mm centres. The vertical intervals depend on the height of the hedge, and provide for the required batter of the hedge. The lowest ties are fixed on the bottom line of the mesh on each side, preventing the mesh from spreading more than the required base width. The next tie is fixed at one-quarter the height of the hedge and secured so that the two sides are kept at a distance apart equivalent to three-quarters of the base width. The third tie is fixed at one-half of the height of the hedge and secured so that the sides are kept apart at a distance equivalent to two-thirds of the base width. The fourth tie is fixed at three-quarters of the base width and keeps the sides apart equivalent to half of the base width. The top tie is fixed at the same length, thus ensuring that the top quarter of the hedge is parallel-sided. Construction is facilitated if each row of wire ties is not fixed until the hedge filling has reached the row below. Temporary arrangements are made to keep the top of the frame open to receive the filling which is tipped in by machine
Each layer includes rough turf placed inside and against the mesh frame to form one continuous skin, grass side out, retaining the filling. The frame is filled with soil, including subsoil where available, which should contain not more than 15% stone, no stone being more than 150mm. It must not contain woody material, and not more than 5% vegetable matter or clay. The filling is placed in layers of 150-200mm and well compacted manually. Mr Wade emphasied to the author that proper consolidation is vitally important, meriting careful supervision of contractors.
When the consolidated filling reaches the top of the frame, a layer of plastic-covered wire netting is laid across the hedge top to stop rabbits from burrowing into the top of the hedge. A further layer of good topsoil 300mm high at the centre, and tapering down on each side to meet the frame, shall be placed and consolidated. This shall be covered by turf not less than 150mm thick. This extra height allows for some subsequent settlement.
The top of the hedge may be planted with either hawthorn or blackthorn according to which species predominates in the locality. Plants should be sourced from native Cornish stock, well-grown, and not less than 0.5m in height. They should be planted 400mm apart through the wire-netting in one row, then pruned to 200mm to improve drought-resistance.
After repairing a gap, the section of new hedge should be fenced with pig netting and two strands of barbed wire, the fence being erected 1m from the hedge, with the posts 2m apart, rejoining the original hedge 2m distant from the rebuilt section.