Hedgerows criss-cross our countryside dividing up farmland and scenery, stretching for miles and miles but what exactly are they?
Often the remains of ancient wooded areas they are usually just one type of bush, but trees like hawthorn, hazel, and ash can also be seen rising up amongst them. Also look out for fruit trees like damsons and crab apples.
The thicker, taller and older they are the better they are for wildlife. During summer months look out for nesting yellowhammers and in winter feeding fieldfares and redwings.
They are also a home for the European-protected hazel dormouse, harvest mice, and bank voles whilst not forgetting hedgehogs, who, nest and feed in them.
Hedgerows provide wildlife with a natural larder - blossom which is nectar rich in the spring and red berries in the autumn and winter.
As well as providing food and shelter for wildlife, hedgerows also provide a safe passage between separate pieces of woodland – a natural and sheltered corridor.
We have a lot to thank our Bronze Age farmers for. They cleared woodland to create farmland, and left strips of the woodland, to mark boundaries which in turn left us with our beautiful hedgerows.
Written by Angela
