The above picture shows an old Devon lane with mature chestnut trees growing on and in a typical Devon hedge bank. This journal will explore the value of this ancient cultural practice and its relevance in helping to address the dangerous times we are all living in.
This picture shows the dilapidated remains of an prehistoric boundary at a hill called Liddy Ball in Devon.
We are nearly three weeks into this community inspired and community funded project to make new and remake some proper ‘edges – proper Devon edges. Regular progress report will be posted here.
I can’t believe the words for hedge and edges are not properly one and the same…
As you can see from some of these picture of various Devon hedges, these edges between lanes and fields, or between one place and another are not insubstantial structures.
devonedges 
It is worthy to note that the top pic of the hedge trees shows Pollarded trees, which is a very old traditional method to increase wood production while protecting the new growth from animals. However these trees are in a desperate state or unmanagement and will suffer structural failure at the pollard points unless they are re-pollarded very soon. Often an old tree left un pollarded after an earlier pollard will not recover from re-pollarding and will instead die from structural failure.
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Thanks for that careful observation. i hadn’t noticed that all the times i’ve driven passed. There’s so much to see when you start looking!
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