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Hedging
and ditching: In the days before electric fencing
or barbed wire, 'laying' a hedge to ensure that it presented an effective
stock-proof barrier was part of the regular winter maintenance work in
the countryside.
Perhaps a tenth of a farm's hedges might be done each year so that they
were all then re-laid on a ten year cycle. It was a craft in its own right,
requiring a good deal of skill, and hedge-laying competitions were often
included in the nineteenth century agricultural shows. A properly laid
hedge is a highly distinctive but comparatively rare sight nowadays. The
photograph shows the final process of trimming with a slashing hook on
a hedge in the 1950s.
Choose
an option:
Hedging
and ditching
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