A cut above

11:57am Wednesday 21st November 2007

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Is it a hedge or a work of art? While the ancient tradition of hedge laying may be in decline, Ruth Campbell found dedicated enthusiasts at the annual Yorkshire championships

THE slashing sound of sharp, doubleedged blades swiftly rising and falling as they slice through thorn cuts across the heavy roar of industrial chainsaws. Seventeen enthusiasts are bent double, bloodied hands and forearms covered in scratches and bruises, as they work to cut and lay eight yards of young hedge in the annual Yorkshire Hedge Laying competition.

They started at 8.30am and it will take them more than six hours to complete their task. This is backbreaking work.

I wonder out loud why farmers would bother to use such a time-consuming, labour intensive and expensive method of keeping their stock in a field when, surely, wooden rails and wire fencing would do the job just as well?

After all, it took nine years for the plants to grow big enough to make the hedge in the first place. But as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I realise I have made a mistake. Farmer and judge Gordon Henley, who is standing next to me, looks startled.

"Don't say tha" He coughs and starts to splutter.

I fear he may be about to choke. I have clearly said the wrong thing.

Gordon, who proudly tells me he is related to an all England Hedge Laying champion, has come across people before who wrongly assume that a hedge is merely, well, a hedge.

And of course, it's much, much more than that.

A properly laid hedge is a dying craft, part of our rural heritage, an attractive feature in the English landscape and a haven for wildlife. It is also, I soon discover, a work of art.

Heather Swift, the only woman taking part in the competition, held just outside Ripon, and who started laying hedges as a conservation volunteer, explains the attraction.

"It is compelling. There is the element of destruction, hacking around with a blade and using a chainsaw. But at the end of the day you are constructing something. Something living, something you can come back and see in years to come."

Like all the entrants today, Heather is laying her hedge in the Yorkshire style, cut thin to promote growth. She is hacking the young thorn - 13ft tall to start with - at its base to encourage new shoots, removing dead wood, trimming it back and then weaving it deftly through stakes, an ancient tradition going back hundreds of years.

A good hedge, laid perfectly straight and standing at about three feet tall, has the look of intricate basket work. It must be stockproof and even, with stems at regular intervals, no odd gaps and plenty of thorn. Then it won't be fully grown for another four years.

"It is part of the countryside and nature, some people don't take much notice, but it is an art," says fellow judge Cliff Clark, from Northallerton.

Organiser Ken Walmsley, who laid hedges from when he was ten years old, explains what the judges will be looking for. "The cleanest of cut and the straightness of the line.

That's the skill of hedge cutting,"

he says.

A few older local farmers have come to watch. They are discussing various methods and the best time to cut. "That's a reet bushy hedge," says one, pointing to a section that has caught his eye.

This competition is taken seriously. To win the trophy and title is considered a great honour. And the rules are strictly applied: the hedges must be in true Yorkshire style, all layers must be in line, the finished hedge must be exactly three feet high, all dead wood must be removed.

Common mistakes are cutting too far down and killing the wood. "They will try and replant it, they will do anything to fasten it on. We go along with a stick under every one. You can soon tell. They will lose points," says judge Gordon Henley.

People have come from as far as Barnsley, Rotherham, Goole, Pontefract and Scarborough to take part. Most cut hedges for a living, a number are enthusiastic hobbyists.

Ken worries that, although there has been a revival of the skill in recent years, fewer, and more complicated government grants mean the craft could be sliding once more into decline.

Legislation introduced in 1997 helped protect hedgerows and between 1998 and 2004 more than 4,000km has been replanted and 7,000km of hedgerow restored. But fewer people are learning the craft and hedge layers have to work at a fair speed to make money. "People do struggle. I know some who have moved to Scotland just to get work,"

says Ken. "It's a shame. You can only learn from people who have done it. A hedge will be here, not just for my life, but in 200 years time if looked after properly."

The National Hedge Laying Society, which has more than 400 members, was set up in the early 1970s to organise competitions to encourage the skill. But where there used to be two or three competitions in Yorkshire every week all through winter, now there is only this one. "They just fizzled out," says Ken.

Sadly, there are no entries in the junior class today. "The interest isn't there,"

says Ken.

One competitor, Jasper Prachek, a former archaeologist from Hartlepool, agrees. He has worked on hedge trackings going back as far as the 12th Century and likes the fact he is helping to regenerate the landscape. "You are always cutting for someone else, for the future.

"You need to be into being outside and not afraid of getting a bit sweaty and dirty," he says. "But young people now make more money sitting at a desk. And some people are dead wet."

It is also increasingly difficult to get sponsors.

This year, organisers would have struggled if the voluntary Friends of Nidderdale AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) hadn't offered £400.

Gordon himself put in £40. "That is what we have to do to keep it going," he says.

The hedge laying world is a small one. Heather, a regional manager for the Woodland Trust, says: "I have been at a big national competition and I knew half of them by name."

She even recognises different layer's styles. "I know who laid which hedges. If you go round the roads all over the country, you get to know."

Some people stand out from the rest, she says, pointing to Charlie Calvert. "He has the knack."

Landscaper Charlie, from Harrogate, goes on to win today with a hedge so thin and perfect it is like a grand lace doily. "It's so hard to do, so inspirational,"

says Heather.

Charlie, who points out some hedge layers charge as little as £60 a day, says: "Competitions like this raise awareness. You don't feel you are the only hedge layer in the world."

He isn't competitive but takes pride in his work.

"I don't enjoy it, I hate it," he says. "You end up tired out and covered in cuts and bruises and aching. But I want to support it. We're trying to keep it going."