Two apprentices took the Guild's practical test on the 30th October at the West Cornwall Ploughing Match. They were joined by three practising hedgers seeking the Guild's Craftsman Certificate. They had to take down and rebuild a short length of Cornish hedge, meeting the standards of the Guild's Code of Good Practice for Cornish Hedges. Both the apprentices passed, as did two of the three other hedgers. It is hoped that the test will be repeated at the same event in autumn 2005. The event was widely reported in the Western Morning News, the Cornishman and elsewhere, and was warmly welcomed as a return of hedging to the West Cornwall Ploughing Matche for the first time in 35 years. In addition several hedgers being over the age of 50 and with 20 years' professional experience have have been accepted as Craftsmen and received their certificates. The Guild's Certificate in Cornish Hedging is now accredited with Lantra, the
As most hedgers are aware, the system of grant aid for farmers has, this year, moved from production subsidies to grants for looking after the countryside. The Entry Level Environment Scheme does not contain any money for restoring old or building new hedges. Included in the Higher Level Scheme is the payment of grant for the restoration of some of our hedges, in similar fashion to the existing Countryside Stewardship scheme. Defra, anxious for this work to be done to a proper standard, has worked with the Guild in the writing of a checklist for inspecting new or restored hedges in Cornwall. The list contains some two dozen key points including identifying wrong batter, the fill being not properly rammed, and the stone not being laid level or in reducing courses. Defra asked the Guild to ask hedgers in Cornwall for their opinions, and the Guild is grateful to those members who responded. Subsequently the Guild held a one-day course for 18 Defra officials where each official actually handled stone in trying to repair a Bodmin moor hedge gap. This check list is available to Guild members from the stewards.
The Guild was strongly represented at the autumn meeting of the Cornish Hedge Group when County Council, Defra, FWAG, Restormel and North Cornwall District Councils, Cornwall AONB and the National Trust attended. The Cornish Hedge Group was set up 6 years ago by officials from central and local government. During the first few years it met twice a year but, with attendances falling off, this was the first meeting for some while.
We held four two-day taster courses at Newhall Farm, Advent during last summer and have already held the first one this year. These are run in response to demand, please contact the stewards if you are interested.
Our website at www.cornishhedges.com is up and running, and we hope to add to it from time to time. It contains notes of the Guild's activities in addition to spelling out the Code of Good Practice for Cornish Hedges in detail. Being put on our website in time for the Royal Cornwall Show is the Guild's Hedge Importance Test (HIT), a new feature is the automatic printout of a full description of the hedge, based on the survey form. This service is provided by the Guild free of charge and enables anyone to assess the importance of a hedge anywhere in Britain by using a simple one-sheet survey form, no specialist knowledge is needed. We are grateful to Rural Progress for helping with the cost of setting up our website and to the Heritage Lottery Fund for help with the progamming.
A free leaflet is now available giving details of how to repair a Cornish hedge using turf. It describes this as a “second-class shortterm solution” for the landowner who wishes to do small repairs to his own hedges. It is suitable for a gap that is “only in the top half of the hedge, and is less than 1.5m (5ft) wide.” If the gap is worse than this, the leaflet advises that a professional hedger be brought in. This illustration from the leaflet shows how to cut and lay the diamond-shaped tobs. These tobs are easily cut out using a Cornish shovel from the field at base of the hedge, and, as the leaflet describes, stay on the shovel while being placed. Trying to use the size of turf that people have for laying down lawns is useless because they are too small and cannot knit together properly. We trust that this leaflet will encourage those landowners with perhaps only two or three acres to actually do something to mend their gaps instead of guiltily ignoring them.
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We shall be at the Royal Cornwall Show this year again and will be happy to speak with anyone interested in Cornish hedges. This year we are demonstrating, funded by Rural Progress, how to build a round hedge end complete with gate hangings.
We continue to consult with Cornwall County Council as regards their “standard specification” for Cornish hedges. Last autumn were asked to comment on this specification, but have not yet got anywhere since, except to receive an acceptance that their current specification could be improved, although they could not tell us when.
A few weeks ago, a hedger told me that he had just done a job for one of the councils in Cornwall and that he had to do the job better than the council's specification, otherwise the hedge would have fallen down as soon as he turned his back on it.
The Guild has been consulted by the Cornwall AONB Partnership as regards the proposed Cornish Hedge Project. We emphasised the importance of our hedges in the landscape and suggested that local hedgers are employed to build demonstration lengths of hedge in the local pattern of stone within each of the various AONB areas.
We continue to receive enquires from people who would like to be properly trained in Cornish hedging. Typical of these is the landscape gardener who is often asked to do small lengths of Cornish hedging in their client's gardens. Her difficulty is being able to arrange time off for the 50 days apprenticeship, but is finding that she can manage two or three days most weeks, and is getting on well. We would like to hear from hedgers who would like to take on an apprentice – no money or paperwork is involved. We are investigating the possibility of getting money from the Heritage Lottery Fund for financial help with the training of apprentices, but will not know if we are successful before the end of the year.