CORNISH HEDGES ARE HISTORIC

Cornwall, mapped separately from England until the first Elizabethan era, has had a distinctive culture and history which is written in the hedges we see today. Cornwall's history differs from the parts of Britain where early hedges were destroyed during the Saxon/Norman period to make way for the manorial field system. Many were replaced after the Enclosure Acts, then removed again in the modern quest for cheap food. Nowadays the emphasis is on conservation of the countryside and some hedges are again being replaced for wildlife. These changes occurred much less in Cornwall.

Ancient stone hedge rebuilt by miners(Trewellard)

The family farm principle established in the Bronze Age still survives, though beset by modern economics. For more than three centuries tin and other metal mining went on side by side with farming. Mine spoil was used in building hedges as more land was enclosed to feed the industrial population boom. Throughout Cornwall every moor shows some evidence of these activities, now sadly reduced by the effects of recent “tidying up” of the buildings, burrows and hedges. Even so, Cornwall is still rich in ancient and historic hedges.

Our oldest hedges date back around 6000 years, with new hedges still being built in the same styles. The hedges' position and appearance in the landscape show their antiquity. The older hedges are the crooked ones that snake across the landscape in bends and kinks where other hedges have been removed, relic evidence of small rounded early fields.