Amazing hedges

The many, many miles of hedge that criss-cross the Biosphere reserve are amongst the very best in the world. Truly, they are one of its world class features. Not only are they a haven for wildlife, but they tell the history of the landscape and are intimately entwined with its culture.

Devon Hedges

Hedge related education resources

Work is underway to develop a scheme of work and associated resources as part of the 'People and Environment' package for primary schools

Set upon often massive earth banks, the hedges are of immense heritage value. Most are Medieval, created some 600 hundred years ago, and some are over a thousand years old and preserve the strips in the open fields favoured in Anglo-Saxon. Few parish churches are that ancient! They give us a living record of how the land has been used down the centuries.

Wildlife habitat

As a wildlife habitat, hedges are vital for many plants and animals. In spring many have glorious displays of colourful flowers like primroses, bluebells, early purple orchids and red campion. These in turn provide much needed nectar and pollen for bumblebees and other pollinators. Devon's most special tree, the Devonian Whitebeam, can be found scattered in hedges throughout the reserve. This is a tree that is found nowhere else in the world other than the UK - its sole stronghold is here in north Devon.

Hedges are critical too to the survival of many farmland birds like yellowhammer and bullfinch. Willow tits, rapidly disappearing from much of the rest of Britain, find plenty of insects and seeds in our hedges to feed on, while greater horseshoe bats, endangered throughout Europe, use them as flyways to forage for their moth and beetle prey. Hedges are often home to the charismatic dormouse and elusive brown hairstreak butterfly and the Biosphere Reserve is a national hotspot for both.

A multitude of benefits

Highly valued by farmers as effective fences to prevent cattle and sheep from straying, hedges provide shelter from driving winds and strong sun. Alongside arable fields, the tussocky grasses that grow at their base provide essential safety for predators of crop pests to survive the winter. These predators include aphid-hungry insects like ladybirds and hoverflies. In this way, hedges reduce the need for farmers to use expensive and potentially polluting sprays. Some studies have even shown that hedges can reduce the infection of cattle with tuberculosis (bovine TB), probably by helping to keep the cattle away from badger faeces and urine.

Hedges need active management to survive and thrive. Left to their own devices, the banks erode away and the shrubs either die out leaving gaps or grow into trees which sooner or later fall down. To counter this, from time to time, all hedges need to be revitalised by laying them, and the banks built up. The upright stems are cut partly through at the base to leave a hinge, and then laid down along the top of the hedge and staked or bound into place. New growth soon springs up. This all requires considerable skill. A hedge laid by a master hedger in the Devon style is not only a beautiful sight, but a work of art. Rob Wolton