Hedge Laying

The winter cutting season is finally here! For woodsman all over the country it's a pretty exciting time; as between the months of October and the end of March is when the majority of coppicing and hedge laying work takes place. This is the way it's been for a VERY long time; cutting in the winter avoids disturbing any birds that might be nesting in the coppice during the spring / summer months and it's also better for the trees themselves. The sap within a tree rises during the spring and early summer and then begins to fall during the autumn. By winter deciduous trees are in the depths of their dormant stage. This means that most of a trees energy reserves are stored in their roots during the winter, by coppicing a tree in the winter the tree is able to put this energy into sending up new shoots, or regrowth, in the spring. For more information on coppicing see my previous post.

The first job for me this cutting season has been a hedge laying job on a community green in Watlington, near Kings Lynn in Norfolk. 

First section of laid hedge

The hedge to be laid was 80m long and comprised almost entirely of hawthorn with a few self seeded sallow trees mixed in. Hedge laying is a very traditional way to manage a hedge; it revitalises a hedge by encouraging it to send up new shoots in the spring. When laying a hedge a small proportion of the stem is left intact with the stump, this allows the laid stem (or pleacher) to actually carry on growing, maintaining a living barrier. There are many hedgelaying styles in the UK, this particular one is known as the 'Midland Bullock' style and is often reffered to as the 'standard' style.

Hawthorn pleachers; the aim is to get the stem to 'lie down' without
shearing it from the stump of the shrub. a proportion of the
outer bark, inner bark, cambium and the sapwood layers remain
attached. This way new growth will shoot from the pleacher and
the stump. 

With the midland style one side of the hedge is known as the near side, and the other as the far side. The near side exposes the stems and pleachers giving a lovely woven look, this side would traditionally have been on the track side. The far side of the hedge would have been on the field side, on this side of the hedge the pleachers and stumps are completely covered by the brash from the tops of the stems. This prevents any livestock on the field from nibbling away the tasty new re-growth which would eventually kill the hedge if not prevented. 

In the case of this hedge, livestock was not a concern. Therefore I laid the hedge with the near side facing in towards the community green; anyone walking through the green will see the neat, woven near side. Another reason for choosing to lay it this direction was that the road next to the hedge often has large vehicles travelling along it. The hedge is laid the same way as the direction of traffic flow closest to the hedge so that any up-draft caused by large vehicles does not lift the pleachers off of the stem, severing their lifeline. The traffic along this road doesn't travel all that fast so whether large updrafts are created by any vehicles in this case is debatable, however this would certainly be something to consider if laying a hedge alongside a motorway or bypass. 

When a hedge is laid it needs to be staked to keep it in position, and to give it an initial bit of strength. I brought some sweet chestnut stakes up with me from Kent as these make extremely strong and durable stakes for hedging, fencing or any situations where stakes are required. (P.S. if you need any chestnut stakes, check out my coppice products page! Couldn't resist the plug!) 

Stakes ready to be split.

I split these 5'6" poles down to make cleft stakes, even the poles split into 8 stakes made extremely strong stakes that could be really driven into place. If you'd like to learn more about splitting poles using a cleaving brake and a froe please see my previous post about making ash gate hurdles.

Some chestnut stakes all split and ready to be driven into the hedge.

Once the hedge is laid and staked it needs to be bound. It was fortunate on this job that there were a number of willow trees that had self seeded into the hedge, these made great binders. Two sets of binders are wound around and around each other as they flow along the length of the hedge, creating a great look but also helping to hold the hedge together to create an instantly strong stock proof barrier. 

80m of hedge all laid and bound. The section at this end of the photo
has been dead hedged to fill a gap between the hedge and a gate.

The Eastern Daily Press (edp) even decided to come and cover the project, they wrote a little article about it available here. They took a nice photo of Keith (one of the Watlington Millennium Green Trustees) and myself too.

Keith and me flying the WREN flag! 

This hedge laying project took place on Watlington Millennium Green, near Kings Lynn in Norfolk and was organised by the Watlington Millennium Green Trust (who were very hospitable!) and was funded by WREN. 

WREN help to fund community projects that are located within 10 miles of a landfill site. This hedge has now been revitalised; it will continue to provide a refuge for wildlife whilst also opening up a community run outdoor space to create wide views across the green. 

A special thanks also to Chris for his help almost everyday I was hedging! I hope you learnt a few tips and don't forget that I'm determined to get you competing in a hedge laying competition soon! 

A Hazel Bender

Well it's been a while since my last post! It's been a busy year so far, I've been able to get out to quite a few coppice and craft related events so I thought I'd write up a few posts to summarise the year so far.

The biggest project I've been involved in so far this year is the building of a traditional hazel 'bender'. Now, we've heard all the jokes.... a bender in this sense is a traditional, simple shelter made using flexible withies or rods; often of hazel.




Traditionally, hazel rods were stuck into the ground and bent over to meet in the middle, creating a dome shaped structure. A groundsheet of some sort could then be put down to stop the damp rising.The skeleton of the structure is then covered with a tarp of some sort, canvas or poly, and insulation can be added at this point too.

We made ours slightly differently, we knew that we wanted it to be standing for as long as possible and that it should be a warm, dry place to spend time whether it's summer or winter.

Naturally, the base was first. We wanted to raise it off the ground slightly so that air could circulate beneath the bender. A few posts were knocked into the ground and bearers were nailed between these posts. The tops of pallets were then nailed down onto this base. 

Next we added a plastic, waterproof membrane as well as a small amount of insulation and a thin layer of ply to top it all off. 

At this point I should point out that benders normally have a circular footprint, sometimes with a small porch to keep the wind out. We wanted to make the most efficient use of the space we had so our floor plan is slightly non traditional. This did create challenges but we were able to work around them all in the end.

Now that the base was done, we could start bending over the hazel rods. We drilled 35 mm holes in the base where the hazel rods went through the base. 

And then the rain arrived and soaked our base!! 

A LOT of knots were tied, we used square lashing knots to tie the rods together. 

Whilst building the bender structure with hazel rods we also fitted these window panels. Most benders don't have windows but we thought it would be nice to let a bit of light in. Besides, we needed some window sills for plants!

It took us a while to figure out how to join an inherently round structure onto square windows. We ended up using  the blue water pipe that you can see in the above photo. this was screwed onto the window panels and the hazel rods were then inserted into these sections of pipe. 

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the next stage, basically we covered the structure with a series of layers; firstly hessian fabric, then sheeps wool underlay insulation and finally a cotton canvas. 

We used a series of screws and large washers to attach the canvas to the structure. 

Once the door was fitted and the canvas was on it started to feel really cosy. The next stage was to fit a stove. 

First fire in the stove!

So far, so good. We decided to start moving some stuff in. 

A rather long spell of wet weather then came in and we discovered that the cotton duck canvas we fitted was only water resistant. Our newly built bender was leaking like a sieve! Luckily we built the bender in the spring so we had the summer ahead of us to sort out the leaks. I tried a few different products to waterproof the canvas but unfortunately, in the end we had to give in and purchase a poly-cotton canvas. Whilst fitting the new poly-cotton canvas we also fitted an additional reflective layer between the hessian and the insulation. This helps to reflect radiant heat back into the bender. This extra layer seems to have worked incredibly well at preventing heat from escaping and I would definitely recommend it to anyone building a yurt or bender. Particularly if you want to spend time in it during the winter. 

We're really happy with the finished garden hide-away and learnt a lot during the building process. We will definitely by-pass the cotton canvas next time, which is a real shame as it's nice to be able to use a natural product that's breathable. The one thing which I think may have allowed us to stick with the cotton canvas is a product called Tyvek. Which is a man-made breathable / waterproof membrane used in the construction industry. a layer of this could have been fitted between the canvas and insulation. Perhaps next time! 

If anybody would like more information about this project or if you're thinking about building a bender of your own, get in touch. I'd be more than happy to share what I learnt throughout the build. 

New spoons for sale

Well it's been a while since I've posted on here!  The move down to Kent to start working in the woodlands down here has been keeping me busy.

I've also been busy making more wooden spoons in my spare time and have made too many to fit in our utensil draw at home! So here's a few that are up for sale. Please send me an email or leave a comment if you're interested in buying one.

The postage for these spoons is £4.50 recorded 1st class delivery to UK mainland. This price is per order rather than per spoon..

15-01 Beech Crook -  SORRY, NOW SOLD

Serving / cooking spoon. 

Length: 25 cm     Bowl width: 5.5 cm

£20 + Postage

15-02 Beech Crook -  SORRY, NOW SOLD

Serving / Cooking spoon

The Celtic runes on this spoon translate to BEECH. 

Length: 28.5 cm      Bowl width: 5.5 cm

£20 + postage

15-03 Birch eating spoon - SORRY, NOW SOLD

Length: 18.5 cm     Bowl width: 4 cm

£13 + postage

15-04 Birch eating spoon - SORRY, NOW SOLD

Length: 19 cm      Bowl width: 3.75 cm

£13 + postage

Thanks for looking everyone. If you're interested in being taught how to carve these spoons yourself let me know, I'm thinking about running some spoon carving courses in the not too distant future.