Epping 'edgers

By Jack Welchman, Countrycare volunteer

Our flying hedgelayers spread their wings in October 2009, when they tackled the huge neglected hedgerows of an organic farm in the north Devon countryside.  

We were privileged to spend time with a family committed to producing good food by good husbandry, where the welfare of the animals was of equal importance to the commercial return.  I had met the farmer on a National Trust working holiday on Exmoor and she could hardly believe her luck when it was suggested that a party of experienced hedgelayers would help out with their hedges on a voluntary basis.  This was one of those ideas that comes up in the pub after a hard day’s work, but doesn’t always seem such a good idea at home.  However Kirsten, the farmer, remained unaccountably keen to have a bunch of strangers all over her land, and when I mentioned it to a few Countrycare volunteers, they were enthusiastic too.

So it came to pass that, one Saturday in late October, 16 of us set out in various cars for Devon, and met up later that day at our accommodation for the week.  This was a splendid complex of holiday cottages surrounding Glebe House, a former Georgian parsonage now owned by Alison and Michael, and just a couple of miles from the farm. (www.glebehousecottages.co.uk)

Next morning after breakfast (Alison’s renowned breakfast baskets - hot bread, croissants, etc delivered to the cottages), we arrived at Carn Brae farm and met Kirsten’s family.   After my experience on Exmoor, I’d warned everyone that Devon hedges were likely to be much bigger than the tidy Essex hedges we are familiar with, and luckily Kirsten had sent some photos of the hedge.  Otherwise our first sight of it the next morning would have been quite a shock, as we faced a wild wood of tall mature trees atop a typical Devon bank. 

We divided into two teams – the young and vigorous, led by Peter Vaughan, got to grips with the main hedge, while the rest of us (feeble and frail?) tackled a smaller, but still challenging, adjacent hedge.  A brilliant support team tended a couple of bonfires and shifted tons of wood onto them.  We were fed and watered at the farmhouse, with fantastic cakes and lovely hot lunches, incorporating eggs and clotted cream from the farm, and other home grown and local ingredients.

In the evening, we congregated in the cosy, and well stocked bar.  After serving drinks and entertaining us, Alison would pop away for a few minutes and then, night after night, produce delicious and imaginative meals of locally sourced food, including vegetables, cream and eggs from the farm.  She worked entirely on her own, and how she managed all this, apparently effortlessly, was a bit spooky.   As the week progressed Alison continued to look poised and elegant (there must be a picture in an attic somewhere telling a different story) while we gradually took on the appearance of being dragged through a hedge backwards (which, come to think of it, we probably had been). 

Back on the farm, lovely views of Bodmin Moor were opened up as the hedge was laid, and everybody seemed well satisfied with the results.  We hope our work will be an asset to the farm and the locality for many years to come.   Everybody had worked really hard, and none more so than Kirsten, Alison and their families, who really wanted to make our stay memorable, and succeeded beyond our expectations.

During the week, some of our party made clotted cream and hand milked a cow.  On the one morning of heavy rain, we stayed in and spent an interesting time with Suzie Barnes, a local representative of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group who is helping the farm with their farm stewardship higher level application.  The activities on our day off included visits to nearby Bude, Sharpe’s brewery, Rosemoor RHS gardens and scaling the peaks of Bodmin Moor (420m!)

On the last afternoon, Kirsten’s brother Adrian led a walk round the farm where we spotted interesting ferns, mosses, wildflowers, and (Paul and Abi eat your hearts out) an old ash tree with a circumference of at least 8m. 

A key feature was a couple of fields of unusual Culm grassland.  This flower-rich wet grassland is internationally important -  a rare and unique habitat only found in Devon and Cornwall.  It supports many of the most threatened species, such as the Marsh Fritillary, Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moth and Double Line moth.

There has been a significant decline in Culm grassland, with almost 50% being lost between 1984 and 1991.  Only 4000 hectares remain today. The species that rely on this habitat have suffered similar decline.  The management of this asset will be enhanced when the farm brings ina few Devon Red beef cattle to complement their dairy (suppliers to Yeo Valley) and sheep production.  

We also carefully noted the many remaining hedges requiring our attention.  Will we be back, if invited?  You betcha.  

Epping ‘edgers?  Well I had some shirts and fleeces made up for the holiday, and quickly had to find a suitable logo for them.  Epping ‘edgers came to mind, and seems to have stuck.