Our John Muir Award Diary: Easteds Lane Hedgerow

The hedgerow we've selected to survey and monitor is on Easteds Lane which has a modern housing estate built around it.

Easteds Farmhouse is a C16 timber-framed building with red brick infilling. It has been refronted on the south side with weather-boarding on a brick base and has a Horsham stone roof. It is a listed building in our village and sits in a cul-de-sac of 1990s houses.

Just to the North of it are the village allotments where iron age remains have been discovered.

Connor and I paced out 30 yards which we've highlighted for future reference with holly at one end and horse chestnut at the other. The overall length of this hedge is 420ft.

The hedgerow runs in a north/south direction with a single lane track running partly alongside it and the housing estate road to the west and a large field to the east.

We took cuttings of as many species as we could find and once home laid them out for photographing and identification.

On the basis of the calculation AGE OF HEDGE = NUMBER OF SPECIES PER 30 YARDS X 100, we estimate that Easteds Lane hedgerow is 1,200 years old which makes it a Saxon hedgerow.

However in "Hedgerows, Their History and Wildlife" By Richard & Nina Muir, Richard Muir writes

“in our experience the theory is so beset by faults of various quite unrelated and serious kinds that it is fundamentally flawed and should not be the key components of research into local landscape history. This is a great shame, since if hedgerow-dating did deliver the goods it would be an invaluable weapon in the local historian’s armoury”.

So far the species we've been able to identify are as follows. If anyone spots any irregularities or mistakes or can help with the missing identities we'll happily be corrected in comments!

Top row left to right

Possibly Spindle?

Dog Rose

Hawthorn

Field Maple

Horse Chestnut

Middle

Round Leaved Dogwood

Bottom row left to right

Holly

Hazel

Possibly another Hawthorn - a different variety to that in the top row?