Hedgerow Survey

Page 1

HEDGEROW SURVEY THE appearance of any country like Suffolk where the natural climax is forest or scrub, is modified by man and his agricultural practices. In primitive and sparsely populated countries a patch of forest is felled by an individual or family, the trees and undergrowth b u r n e d and the ground cultivated until loss of fertility and invading weeds make it impossible to continue. A fresh area is then cleared and the old one allowed to revert to secondary forest, often very different in composition to that felled. As the p o p u lation increases Settlements become p e r m a n e n t and the inhabitants have to devise some other method of cultivation, one which will maintain the fertility of their land. In E u r o p e generally the method which evolved is known as the 'open field system', under which most of England was farmed until the end of the 18th C e n t u r y . T h o u g h the system varied f r o m manor to m a n o r the essence of the system was u n i f o r m co-operative arable farming. T h e arable land of t h e whole manor was divided into three ' G r e a t Fields' over which a rotation of winter corn, spring corn, fallow was followed, each man having to crop his own land, which was split u p into a n u m b e r of small parcels scattered among t h e three fields, on the same rotation as his neighbours. After harvest the livestock of all the village was t u r n e d out to graze on the stubbles, as they were t h r o u g h o u t the s u m m e r on the field being fallowed, so no man could at any time fence his own land either for agricultural purposes or in order to build a house on it. T h e r e were therefore no hedges or fences save the few round the houses and gardens in the village around the church, and no hedgerow trees: the b o u n d a r y between one m a n ' s plots and his neighbours' was a 'balk' of u n p l o u g h e d land. T h o u g h the rotation followed probably maintained the fertility of t h e land it obviously did not allow for any agricultural improvem e n t s : a man could not, e.g. grow t u r n i p s for winter keep if he c o u l d n ' t fence against his neighbours' stock. T h e r e was therefore a constant d e m a n d by 'improving' landlords and farmers to split the co-operatively cultivated land into individual f a r m s which culminated in a great spate of Enclosure Acts in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. W h e n enclosure took place each man was given a single block of land in place of his original holding scattered over the three open fields, and the right of c o m m o n grazing on the stubbles disappeared. Each man had to erect a b o u n d a r y fence and on holdings of any size would dig ditches to drain his land, planting hedges on the excavated soil to divide his land into a n u m b e r of fields. T h e r e was always a drift towards individual occupation of land and enclosures. T h i s was opposed by legislation in T u d o r times, encouraged later, and t h r o u g h o u t England most of the hedges and hedgerow trees are the result of Enclosure Acts passed between


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.