Devon County Council

Devon’s Hedgerow Challenge 2008

As part of Devon Hedge Week, the Devon Hedge Group is launching a challenge to find wildlife-rich hedges across the county.  We invite you to take up this challenge, to help us find some of the very best hedges in Devon.  

We will use the top entries to help publicise and celebrate Devon’s extraordinary hedgerow heritage.  As well as having more hedgerows than any other county in the British Isles, you can help us to demonstrate their diversity and quality.

For the first fifty entries to the Hedgerow Challenge, the Devon Hedge Group will send out complimentary copies of the attractive publication Devon’s Hedges: Conservation and Management, which is packed full of useful information.  The first five entries will also receive a free copy of the acclaimed recent hedgerow DVD, A Cut Above the Rest.

How to enter

All you have to do to take part in Devon’s Hedgerow Challenge is to provide us with information on a hedge that you know of which is either particularly distinctive or rich in species.

• Fill in the online entry form. If you wish to send in a photograph of your hedge please e-mail (along with your details) to:  hedges@devon.gov.uk
• Or, print the entry form and send it by post to:  Devon Hedge Group, Environment, Economy & Culture, Devon County Council, Lucombe House, County Hall, Exeter, EX2 4QW.

Entry guidance

• The species that will count towards the total are listed in the photo galleries and guidance. Only native species, or those that have been long-established in the wild, should be included in the score.  Creepers and ramblers like bramble, honeysuckle and ivy don’t count (but record them anyhow). Hedges that have been planted within the last 20 years are not eligible.
• One way to enter is to count and record the number of different species of tree and shrub in a single 30 metre length of the hedgerow you have chosen. (view the gallery of trees and shrubs typical of Devon’s hedges). Hedges with many different types of trees and shrubs support more wildlife than those with just a few. Also hedges with lots of trees and shrubs tend to be older and of greater historical significance. Hooper’s rule of thumb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooper's_Rule) says that every species in a 30 metre stretch represents about a century, so a hedge with five species might be 500 years old, and so on.
• Alternatively, just provide a simple description of why you think your hedge is especially distinctive or special and, if possible, send us a photograph.  What are the features that make it stand out from other hedges or, indeed, which make it so characteristic of your local area?  Is it the pattern or style of the stone facing, or the size of the earth bank?  It may be that the dominance of just one or two trees or shrubs species is particularly typical of your area, or maybe you know of a hedge which holds something unusual like Devon whitebeam or small-leaved lime.  Or it may even be an unusual field pattern created by a network of hedges.
• If the hedgerow is not next to a public right of way, or on public land, you must ask permission from the landowner or manager first before you inspect it.
• You may record and submit entries anytime before 31 December 2008, but identification of different species is easier earlier in the year when their twigs and branches still have some leaves or fruits like berries, keys and acorns.

Further guidance

The notes below provide more detailed guidance on how to determine how species-rich a hedge is in terms of its trees or shrubs.

• Pace or measure out a length of 30m, marking each end with a stick or other object.  If you can, pick a section that is away from the ends of the hedgerow, since this will be likely to be more representative of the hedge as a whole.
• Try and have a look at both sides of the hedge if you can, but please take care alongside roads and other hazardous places.
• Both tall hedges (that now look lines of trees) and short, classic, hedges can be included.  The height of the bank does not matter.  The only restriction is that the hedge must be less than 5m wide between outermost woody stems at the bottom.
• View photos of many of the trees and shrubs you are likely to find in Devon. Further photos can be found on the Woodland Trust site http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/spots/autumn, keys and photos on http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/index.htm, and photos on www.aphotoflora.com.

Recommended identification guides include:

• A Guide to the Identification of Deciduous Broad-Leaved Trees and Shrubs in Winter, by J Panter and A May, Field Studies Council
• Collins Tree Guide, by Owen Johnson and David More, Harper Collins.

More about the diversity of Devon’s hedges

Characteristically, nearly all our hedges have banks upon which the trees and shrubs grow.  At times these banks are huge, several metres high, for example separating fields in the hilly Blackdowns.  On other occasions, they may be fairly low, either because that is the way they were built, or because they have been eroded down over the years, as in parts of West Devon.  Then the bank may be faced either with stone or with turf.  Through much of Dartmoor the banks are faced with granite stones, often huge interlocking boulders that must have taken enormous skill and strength to lift and fit into place.  In other places, often along the coast, the stones are set in a beautiful herring bone pattern, as at Morte Point.

Most of the county’s hedges are species-rich, with 5 or more species per 30m stretch, but some characteristically have fewer trees and shrubs.  In a few places like parts of East Devon where the hedgerows were planted relatively recently in the 19^th century, they are still dominated predominantly by hawthorn, or more rarely by blackthorn.  On Exmoor, many hedges were planted just with beech, and these have often developed into fine lines of trees which are very characteristic of the landscape.  On our other large upland, Dartmoor, the banks often support a limited but distinctive selection of rowan, birch, holly or thorn.   Near the coast, hedges with abundant gorse are not uncommon, creating spectacular lines of bright yellow across the countryside in the spring.

The varied geology of the county also has an effect on its hedges.  Around Plymouth, Torbay and East Devon, where there is often some lime in the soil, field maple and dogwood, even wayfaring tree and privet, are common, but all these species are unusual in the more acidic west where guelder-rose and alder buckthorn are more often encountered.  Various species of willow or sallow pick out very wet soils, while elder prefers well drained soil.

And our hedges vary hugely in size, varying from lines of huge trees to more typical classic hedges that are cut regularly to keep them dense and short.  In windswept areas like Hartland, the trees are distinctively bent over towards the east away from the prevailing, salt-laden, winds.