b'Hedges: How and WhenWendy GildingT o start near the beginning, with one of the earliestalso dead hedges. Stakes cut from coppiced wood written instructions for planting a hedge: were driven into the ground about 2 feet apart and The place where you intend to hedge should bewoven with thinner branches called ethers, making banked with 2 ditches 3 feet apart, 2 feet deep issomething like a fixed hurdle. The practice was also to enough. Leave them over winter while the seeds areuse thorny wood, suggesting the reason why spinneys got ready. Gather the seeds when ripe and mix them(woods of prickly species) were cultivated and valued; with ground-up wet grass; then coat old espartoreferences to these appear into the 17th century. (grass) rope with this mixture so that they can beBrambles and briars were cut from live hedges to stored until springtime. Then lay the ropes in the 2make the dead hedges impenetrable. The cut spiney ditches and cover them lightly with earth. In 30 dayswood, which was called trouse, was also used to the thorns come up. When they are young we havemend gaps in a living hedge. to support them with small stakes. (Columnella, 1stIn medieval times the man in the moon was century BC) thought of as a stupid hedgera 13th century poem Julius Caesar noted laid hedges in Flanders circasays: he is bent under a forkload of thorns, he hath 55 BC, recording an ancient practice by which theysomewhere a burden of briar, and been in trouble with obstructed their neighbours cavalry coming at themthe hayward (hedge warden). Where he might be in for raiding. They cut into slender trees and bent themthe field driving stakes getting ready for his thorns to over, so that many branches came out along theirclose his gaps, he must make more with his twybill, length; they finished these off by inserting bramblesor else all his days work will be lost(trouse and and briars, so that these hedges formed a defence likebriar without stakes does not last). Shakespeare, in a wall, which could not only not be penetrated but notA Midsummer Nights Dream, has Moonshine with even seen through. lanthorn, dog and bush of thorn. In Britain traces of hedges have been found in aThere are 3 methods by which a hedge can come Roman system of small fields bounded by ditchesinto existence: which had been waterlogged preserving twigs, pollen1.Planting.and seeds of hawthorn, blackthorn and briar. Also2.Developing from a dead hedge or fence, orparts of an actual hedge have been excavated inneglect of an area between fieldsif the grass Dumbartonshire under a Roman fortditches withand weeds on a boundary were left to grow tall, hawthorn stems showing the distortions, cuts andbushes would grow and in time develop into a calluses produced by hedge-laying. The fort was builthedge along the headland.around AD 142; the hedge remains were buried in the3.As a remnant of trees and shrubs left whenditches. woodland was cleared for a field. This can be The Anglo-Saxons had several Old English wordsindicated by the species of trees or flowers for hedgehege, haga, hegeraewe (hedge-row),present. For instance small-leaved lime only raew; various combinations were used such asgrows in woodland. hazelrows, thornrows, willowrows and occasionallyThis last could be the history of part of the hedge rushrows and stonerows. Cwichege is a live hedge,along Garrowby Lane, on the right going out of the hagathorn is hawthorn and hege sugge is hedgevillage; it is very wide, also dogs mercury (Mercuralis sparrow. Haga, the commonest word for hedge,perennis) is present which is often an indicator of is an element in placenames such as Northaw andancient woodland.Thornhaugh. In Domesday Book, haia is recorded as a device for catching roe deer. Early Charters, forReferences:instance a Somerset one of 816, mention old hedges,W G Hoskins: The Making of the English Landscapeand sometimes refer to trees standing in a hedge. Oliver Rackham: Trees and Woodland in the British You may have wondered why it was called quickLandscapeor live thorn. It came about because there were Local ExpressionsI f you overhear someone using an unusual localmeaning give a man a jobexpression or you use one yourself please let ustrod or throd as in up the garden trodknow. Here are three to start us off: meaning path, used commonly in the past gluntous meaning blunt when announcing a trip up the garden to theyoke up as in he would yoke up any manoutside loo BULLETIN 9 133'