Britain’s modern agricultural revolution began about 1950, and reached its height in the 70s and 80s. Three major trends began to reinforce each other at the start of the postwar period, with disastrous results for the comfortable old Enclosure era hedgerow landscape.
First, mechanisation finally reached out beyond single or linked pairs of farm operations to automate whole sequences of tasks. Machines became larger, costlier and more cumbersome, with large tractors and ploughs, sprayers and most of all combine harvesters operating most efficiently in large fields. Hedgerows were in the way.
Secondly, farm labour continued its long-term decline. In 1940, there were nearly 2.5 million full-time British farmers and farmworkers, looking after an average of 18 acres per person. By 1994, there were only 500,000 people in full-time farming, looking after an average of 86 acres each. Hedgerows, particularly laid hedges requiring labour- intensive management, became an unwanted financial burden to many farmers.
Thirdly, farming patterns changed. After the war, dairying and sheep farming declined to a record low in the eastern counties, while arable farming increased greatly. The reverse occurred in the west. Just as important in all regions, many fields which had once been permanent pasture were placed under temporary pasture, blurring the distinction between grass and arable, and requiring machine access to fields which had not previously needed it. Since hedges were now seen to serve little purpose other than stock fencing, more flexible barriers such as barbed wire and electric fencing came to seem more attractive.
Neglect has been almost as bad an enemy of hedgerows as removal. The convenience and economics of flail cutting has meant that many hedgerows have been given an annual cut, and not allowed to grow up, thicken and develop. Frequent and heavy machine trimming, often combined with herbicide use in the adjacent field, has resulted in hedgerows being reduced to an intermittent line of shrubs, bare at the bottom and with so-called ‘bird’s nests’ along the top created by repeated cutting at the same height.
Farmers have not been the only ones to remove hedgerows. Urban development destroyed around 1000 miles (1600km) of hedges each year during the period 1925-39, and perhaps 700 miles (1100km) a year from 1945 onward. Lesser agents include opencast mines, military airfields, reservoirs and motorways, the latter sometimes creating new hedges along their flanks to make up for some of those destroyed. However, changing farm practices have been the major cause of loss. It is estimated that between 1945-70 a total of 20,000 miles (32,000km) were lost to various non-agricultural causes, as compared with 120,000 miles (192,000km) grubbed up by farmers.
Despite increasing food surpluses and limiting returns from still greater agricultural efficiency, hedgerow losses increased during the 1980s. As well as removal, widespread neglect has left many hedges beyond the point of restoration. Surveys of British field boundaries have shown that 20% of boundaries classified as hedgerows in 1984, were re-classified in 1990 as lines of trees, shrubs or relict hedgerows (Barr et al, 1991). A large sample of hedges in mid Wales surveyed between 1976-79 were classified as ‘derelict’.
In spite of campaigns by conservation and countryside organisations, and the protests of many individuals, action to protect hedgerows has been slow to take place. Figures on hedgerow loss issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, based on postal surveys of farmers, have shown much lower rates of loss than those by other organisations. However, an overview of hedgerow losses in England since 1940, using aerial photographic interpretation, reinforced the conservationists viewpoint, by showing a loss of 22% of hedgerows between 1947-85. The following table, from the survey (Hunting Survey and Consultants Ltd., 1986), shows the pattern of regional loss.
Length of hedgerows in England and Wales, 1947-85
| Region | Length of hedgerows (‘000 km) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 1969 | 1980 | 1985 | |
| South East | 117.9 | 98.7 | 92.8 | 88.3 |
| South West | 119.5 | 111.7 | 105.4 | 103.3 |
| East Anglia | 61.1 | 53.2 | 46.6 | 43.1 |
| East Midlands | 86.6 | 73.0 | 65.9 | 60.9 |
| West Midlands | 79.0 | 67.3 | 63.0 | 52.8 |
| North West | 27.9 | 23.9 | 23.4 | 22.1 |
| Yorks/Humberside | 131.2 | 112.0 | 101.3 | 96.7 |
| Northern | 39.3 | 37.8 | 35.8 | 33.7 |
| Wales | 133.6 | 125.3 | 118.5 | 114.1 |
| TOTAL | 796.1 | 702.9 | 652.7 | 621.0 |
| (Multiply figures by 0.6 to give estimate in miles) | ||||
The planting of new hedges has helped offset the lengths lost, but as shown in the table below, the net decrease in great Britain between 1984-90 amounts to nearly one quarter of the length of 1984 boundaries which contained hedges. Neither is it simply a matter of length. Anew hedge can never replace the historical, wildlife and landscape value of a hedge many centuries old.
Estimates of net change in hedgerow length between 1984-90.
| Lengths and standard errors (+ or -) in ‘000 km. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eng | Scot | Wales | GB | |
| Total hedge length in 1984 | 440.7 (26.1) | 48.5 (8.6) | 74.7 (8.4) | 563.8 (32.9) |
| Total hedge length in 1990 | 344.3 (22.8) | 35.2 (7.0) | 53.8 (6.9) | 433.3 (28.9) |
| Net decrease 1984-90 | 96.4 (12.3) | 13.3 (2.7) | 20.8 (3.9) | 130.5 (14.9) |
The rate of hedgerow removal was greater between 1984-90 than in the period 1978-84. In addition there has been an overall decline in hedgerow management between 1984-90, leading to an increase in relict hedgerows.
A survey by the Council for the Protection of Rural England estimated that each year between 1990 and 1993 in England and Wales an average of 2,200 miles (3,540km) of hedgerow was removed. This shows a marked reduction in the rate of removal compared with the period 1984-90, and in fact the length of new hedges being planted was greater than that being actively removed. Hedgerow loss between 1990-93 was almost entirely due to change of management. Neglect is now the biggest threat to hedgerow survival.
Stubble burning, which frequently caused damage to hedgerows, was banned in 1992.
In some areas the situation is beginning to turn full circle. In Environmentally Sensitive Areas (England and Wales), payments are available to farmers for sympathetic management of land for conservation. Few farmers of the post-war period would have believed that one day a British government would pay them to maintain hedges, trees, ponds and meadows, after subsidising their destruction for four decades. There is a strong case for all farmers to be paid for such management, as the British countryside is a precious resource for people and wildlife, and our number one tourist attraction. In the meantime, as detailed above, hedgerow loss and neglect still continues.
The Hedgerow Regulations 1997 were introduced to help protect hedgerows. Under the regulations, landowners needed to get permission from the local authority to remove hedges that were on, or alongside:
- agricultural land
- common land, including town or village greens
- land used for forestry or the breeding or keeping of horses, ponies or donkeys; or
- a Local Nature Reserve or Site of Special Scientific Interest.
