Hedgelaying UK Well into the 20/21 season

[Dorset]

Hi all from the soggy SW UK 
Hope everyones doing ok.
Well, as the subject states were well into the hedgelaying season over here now and heres a couple of pic's just from the last job.
Some before and afters (depending how they have loaded up )
 

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Others can be seen on website FB or IG

[jmouton]

i got a dumb question,,  but what is hedgelaying  and why,,just to clear the land,,does it grow back every year,,just a little confused about this ,,

[Ianab]

It's on old technique mostly used in England, and predates fencing wire. By coppicing, pruning and intertwining the branches you can make a stock proof living "fence: So the first picture is a "fresh" job, and the later ones are a year or 2 later when it's all bushed out again. After a few years it gets trimmed back and redone. 

I read some place that they can estimate the age of the hedge by how many different species of tree are in it. Over the centuries more random seeds get dropped by birds, so there is a greater variety of species making up the hedge. 

[WV Sawmiller]

i got a dumb question,,  but what is hedgelaying  and why,,just to clear the land,,does it grow back every year,,just a little confused about this ,,

  Not a big sport/task in the USA.

  I grew up in Fla. The first I time I turned on the TV and saw a bunch of morons on the ice with a bunch of brooms and an old dishpan filled with ?? and they called it curling I knew cold weather and being locking inside too long did things to people's minds.

  Truth be told - crickets are better bluegill bait than a national sport too. Sorry if that steps on anybody's toes.

[mudfarmer]

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Watched a video a while back and it seemed like there were different methods based on region that were used for hedge laying but don't remember the specifics of which means which place or how many variations there were. Yours has a single post driven in with horizontal stems woven around/in between but seems like some other region used one on each side or some other difference.

What I am asking is, do you have a term for your specific type of hedge laying? Are there derogatory terms for how those "other" crazies down the way do it?

[mike_belben]

Nice work!

[farmfromkansas]

Looks like a lot of work, if you have to rebuild often.  Seems building a fence with hedge posts and barbed wire is less labor intensive.  Build new, lasts for years, then you repair the loose and broken spots and maybe get 50 years out of it.

[Ianab]

It's more a historic preservation thing I think. Some of those hedgerows could be 500 or more years old, and are part of the local ecosystem. (Wildlife habitat etc)

I imagine hiring a bulldozer and replacing with a modern fence would get the farmer run out of town pretty fast.