High banks are considered safe from sheep, which help preserve the bank by grazing the face and keeping the turf short. Low banks are protected by the measures given to protect the newly laid hedge or newly planted hedge. Some sheep farmers take no precautions, while others use ‘byrdn’ or place brushwood along the face and stake it down.
Byrdn is used in parts of Powys, and involves setting a ‘hedge’ of small dead cuttings neatly and deliberately along the top of the newly-turfed bank, next to the laid hedge. As you remove the unwanted growth out of the hedge, cut the brushy ends so that when stuck into the bank, they are half as high as the eventual height of the laid hedge. Sharpen the base of each stem with the billhook and force it into the comb of the bank, angled the same way as the pleachers.
Cattle are a different matter. Pawing and leaping bullocks menace even the highest banks. West Country hedges of both turf and stone used to be left half built to settle, and even now are considered ‘tender’ until new vegetation starts to grow on them. Letting cattle get at a new hedge during this period is asking that it be torn down. Mended gaps in an otherwise stable bank can be blocked off with a few cut thorn bushes, or fenced with a single line of barbed wire. Where the expense can be met, a permanent fence gives the best protection.
