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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
The Brits are at it again! http://www.iht.com/articles/102653.htmHedge-rage hits Britain! One suit causes Court to define "hedge!" What ever will they get up to next! Here in *New* England anything over six feet is called a "spite fence" and if you build one they will come and make you top it off to the allowed height.  If your trees or hedges are the problem most N.E. towns have the right to trim to specifications or trim to remove branches obstructing a sight line as at a corner where there is merging traffic or where an official road sign (stop/ speed limit/etc) is being blocked.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Yep! I know one couple who spent some £10,000 in legal fees over a 'hedge fight'. There is a need to be careful with legislation dealing with hedges as some of them (not generally those between gardens, but the ones edging fields and lanes) have been in place for a thousand years and maybe more. Apparently they are of great historic value, though I don't know the details as to why. Still if someone proposed to take a chainsaw to the hedges bordering some of my local sunken lanes I'd be out there protesting, writing letters and starting an action group. Its an emotional subject, changing ancient landscapes.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
The story is about a neighbor who let his hedge grow to a height that shades the neighbor so they get miniscule sun! The former neighbors always kept the hedge cut to reasonable height, giving privacy but not casting next door garden into darkness.
I can understand not cutting ancient hedges...I'd be right there bringing tea and coffee for the "troops!"
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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But there are two sides to the story. it says in the article - well, that's because there are two sides to a hedge. And everybody, on average, has four neighbors..
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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the ones edging fields and lanes) have been in place for a thousand years and maybe more. Apparently they are of great historic value, though I don't know the details as to why.
To a practitioner of landscape history (which is a small, but vital, part of the study of local history) the constitution of a hedgerow can help him to estimate the age of the hedge, therefore the minimum age of the lane it borders, as well as that of the field. This, in turn, can give clues as to historic land use and transport routes.
Even a lay-person can make rough estimates as to hedge-age by counting the number of different vrieties of plant used to make the hedge. As a rule of thumb, you can reckon 100 years for every variety used. (This is obviously not fool-proof, but it works well enough for most of the time.)
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Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Ancient hedges have more than just historical value. In a landscape that is almost completely cultivated the ancient hedges between fields and along roads offer food, shelter, sanctuary and a safe "highway" to many of the smaller wildlife. Modern fences are lower maintainance but provide none of the above.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Good points, Zed--thank you. Until I read your post, I had been contemplating coming out in favor of cutting them so I could see, next time I go over.
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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It is a little scarey driving down what feels like a winding tunnel a car and a half wide and hearing an unseen lorry roaring along!
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Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Thanks for that information Rhuby - I hadn't thought of it in that way, but...
As a rule of thumb, you can reckon 100 years for every variety used.
This seems to assume that any one hedge was originally planted using only one variety of shrub and then patched with others. Why would that be? Given that there were, I suppose, no equivalents to nurseries from which to order a whole bunch of plants to put in, then wouldn't the farmers simply have dug up and replanted whatever came to hand to form their hedge and, later on, to patch it with?
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
hedges between fields and along roads offer food, shelter, sanctuary and a safe "highway" to many of the smaller wildlife. Modern fences are lower maintainance but provide none of the above.
When I bought my present abode the lots of all the houses in the development had five foot stockade fences along the lot lines.
Therefore, being conscious of the note from ZED I have bushes alongside the fences.
As of now I have squirrels, chipmunks, a toad (for whom I have installed a Toad House in a shady spot) a skunk and a racoon, plus lots of birds who love the berries. One tree is an ancient apple which still bears fruit and the critters gobble them up. Hardly ever see a fallen apple on the ground more than a day!
Most of the folks have gardens along their fences and we have plenty of hiding spots for small creatures.
Interesting to me : a new golf course was recently built in a nearby town and places of refuge for critters was deliberately built into the course.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
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a new golf course was recently built in a nearby town and places of refuge for critters was deliberately built into the course.
Probably more because they didn't want little furry bodies caused by badly hit golf balls littering the fairways, but ...
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Probably more because they didn't want little furry bodies caused by badly hit golf balls littering the fairways, but ...
Yeah, either that or it's written into law that if you don't keep some set-aside for the natives, you can go build your golf course elsewhere.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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"Oh, Ye of little faith."
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