Bushcraft Skills: 1000 Year Old Traditional Technique | Hedge Laying | Axe, Saw, Billhook
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Join me in the woods as I show. you a one thousand year old bushcraft skill and the traditional skill of hedgelaying. Where you cut put a cut into a tree, fold it over, but leave enough bark and cambium layer for nutrients and water to pass up and down the tree. And in a few years time new shoots will grow up in vertical stems and you can create a living hedge! Great for creating wildlife habitats, and for making natural stock fencing to keep in animals. This technique is an ancient british skill and still used to this day to break up fields with hedgerows. I wanted to do this to the border of my woodland as the boundary had a lot of overhanging trees that needed trimming back. Thank you for watching, and if you enjoyed the episode, please feel free to subscribe for more.
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WOODLAND LIFE - EPISODE 5: We roll back the years with this incredible traditional skill that dates back well over a thousand years! Really enjoyed this one despite the hard graft involved. Follow along on the woodland life series here: th-cam.com/play/PLxnadpeGdTxCwRkZTLMhjbT_EAu6bAIZy.html Thanks for watching!!
I really love your videos things I’m learning for when I hopefully own a woodland when I’m older while woodland isn’t that expensive when it comes to it or the mortgage you’ve just got to pay off a chunk of the mortgage. To ta outdoors you should get yourself a two and a half pound Kent pattern axe there great bushcraft axes and have a very wide bit which makes them great for hewing I have one and love it for doing all kinds of tasks.
oh and thank you for the great content and information really loving your woodland life series
Definitely do follow-up episodes.
ळ
Check out Doc Zoff comment below regarding gaps and making new stools.. awrsome community.
Excellent demonstration video and a great short history of hedgerows in the UK. Do your species change (more Crataegus-hawthorn and Prunus spp.) along the other boundaries? Obviously not tight enough for deer, but would work well with cattle.
This was like a documentary, I really enjoyed this episode! I imagine that the barbwire fence will eventually get lost in the growth? You might want to consider a written journal of the working this woodland which would record the history of what you are doing here. Great video!
Yes the barbed wire will eventually rust and breakdown over many years. By which time this should be a much thicker hedge!
A written record an publish as a book would be a lovely xmas gift. Please consider over the next few years.
@@private15 as a good book for the teacher to go and reach
@@private15 in now he is adding vertical steps huge g
I’m gonna pause this just to say:
As someone who never even knew what a billhook was until I saw someone hedging, I was vaguely interested. Then I was really interested. But they were all so expensive. Then I saw one by Fiskars (a scissor company) on clearance at a local department store at the end of spring and decided to try it.
I will never go back. I will never be without. When this one (I actually have two) dies I will replace it with an expensive version that will last lifetimes.
Even if just for how easy they make tackling a bramble patch.
We used to live in a rural part of Hertfordshire and see hedging being done. I can remember my Dad talking with one of the hedgers and hearing him show and tell my Dad what he was doing - Thick as a Lamb's ear! He said was how to cut the branch before folding it down! He had walking sticks that he made from the thinnings he had cut out. Still have one and you can see how the wood regrew to fill in the piece cut out! Beautiful process! Really very efficient!
I can relate ... working in the woods is therapy for me ... cutting trees with my dad every saturday last months ... trying to clear a forest planted by my great-gandfather of some dead trees ... having a picknick in the woods during work is the best. :D
Reading lord of the rings and hearing them talk about the great hedge along the old forest now I have a visual representation of what "the hedge" is thank you for this 👍🤯
Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings in Oxfordshire. A fine county! And one with traditional hedgerows like this. Perhaps that hedge from his book would have been inspired by these.
Since I’ve learned about the hedge rows from WW2, and their effectivity against tanks, I’ve been fascinated with the “how” it was done, but not so much the “why”. It’s a departure from the lava rock walls that were hand built by the Hawaiians, but for a very long time, I’ve believed traditional English hedges to be a viable border when I decide to buy acreage either in the continental US or back in Hawaii. Thank you for the educational video on both the how and why hedges were created and used.
When the Americans, British and Canadians invaded Normandy in June 1944, after moving across the beachheads they came across the "Bocage", the traditional hedgerows of the Normandy Countryside. The hedgerows created small compounds where the hedgerow had built up over centuries up on mounds of earth so that the roads and lanes running amongst them were at lower levels. The Germans set up Anti Tank Guns and Armoured vehicles behind the natural "berms" camouflaged by the hedgerows. Each small plot of land behind the hedgerows became a small natural fortress. The most amazing thing is that during the planning for the invasion back in the UK , noone had considered the obstacle that the hedgerows would pose to miltary operations. Although they had similiar hedgerows in Britain (albeit that many may have been removed as you have discussed) no training was conducted to practise how one might assault these hedgerows. In the end they made up makeshift plows out of old landing craft obstacles and welded them to the front of tanks so they could breach these incredible defences!
I learned to lay hedges years ago, in a few different styles. They're a thing of beauty if done properly, and make incredible hedges. Another great vid Mike.
Is this a typical winter activity, or does it work just as well in the autumn after the leaves have fallen off.
@@perarne73 yes, it's always done in the Winter, partly because there are no nesting birds, and partly because you're getting it ready for the Spring. Once Spring hits, the shoots are beginning to form, and they will grow up through the layed parts, making the hedge stronger.
Thank you for showing this ancient craft! Julius Caesar wrote about hedgerows that impeded the movement of his armies when he was conquering what is now Belgium and the southern Netherlands. I work for an organisation in the Netherlands that works to promote the restoration and maintenance of cultural landscapes in our country. And planting and maintaining hedges are our most important activities. We take a lot of inspiration from the UK, where the tradition is much more alive and widespread. We do a lot of work in the Maasheggen (Meuse hedges), which is one of the very few areas in this country where the traditional pattern of hedges is still intact. These hedges are all in the floodplains of the river Meuse (Maas), so when the river floods in the winter the hedges would cause the flow of the water to slow down, causing the finest and most fertile particles to settle on the fields, fertilising them. The Maasheggen has been designated a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in 2018.
So great to see neighbours working well together sharing boundries.
Very interesting Mike. I once did a hedge laying course at Cirencester agricultural college. It's a hard job but the hedges are better for it.
My Uncle Arthur Pearcey now long dead told me a story about hedge laying. They used to wear a thick leather glove on one hand so they could push the hedge down. This glove was thick and stiff and would turn even the hardest of thorns but on one occasion a black thorn pierced the glove and run up under my uncles thumb nail. He was in agony. Blackthorn is not a good thorn the get stuck with. The wound will often turn septic.
I believe this happened to my uncle way back in the 1930's. As I say he is long dead now......
Sandy
One of your best videos, wonderfully explained and shown. I think it's awesome that you revive the old traditions and share your knowledge. Thank you very much for your commitment. Greetings from Bulgaria. 🙂
I love the way you and your father get on with each other. My dad turned 90 yesterday so he has slowed down quite a bit, but when I get home we still go out and cut wood or do other projects together.
Pretty cool that you where a teacher at school, and now your a real woodsman,and you teach adult how to reclaim traditional and relevant skills. thanks man.
A Yorky was my preferred hedging hook, used two handed it has the heft to cut fairly thick timber, whilst also having the balance to go an agile one handed tool. The curved bill gives an extended reach when pulling branches towards you, and the vee also provides an extended reach when pushing brush and branches away. Yorkies are initially more tiring to learn to use due their heavier weight and the potential for more forceful blows, but it's not too long until it just feels like an extension of your arm. The hook and vee then become a real advantage for quickly manipulating stock, in comparison I found that when using a Southern Counties I was constantly putting the billhook down to free my hand to move the stock. On thorn hedges the extended reach and manipulation offered by the Yorky avoided a lot of cuts and scratches. It's been decades since my hedgelaying days, but credit to you Mike... for a relative beginner your making a decent job of it, and by the time you've completed your boundaries you skills will have hugely improved! Great video, fantastic objective to share and encourage the craft, and a total pleasure to watch! Where you have wide gaps you can cut short lengths of bark from the lower face of the layed pleach and then peg it down against bare earth. Hazel will form roots at these contact points, eventually creating new stools.
Hi Mike thanks for another interesting video. I was fortunate about six years ago to help friends lay the hedges around their allotments. We had an 85 yr old gent showing us the way to lay it. It was a great learning experience.
BBC ain’t got nothin on TA outdoors. Wonderful doc gents.
BBC is fake news or they don’t report the most disastrous threats instead they cover up serious issues from the public etc. Forest fires burn out of control due to poor maintenance and insurance frauds. Think about it!
Nice to see that this old technique is still used!
Great video ! My Quaker ancestors emigrated to the US way, way back, bringing their traditional farm skills with them, but they homesteaded on the treeless prairies of Kansas so they forgot their forestry knowledge, But they gained some new skills, like making a sod house. And burning "buffalo chips" for heat. I remember my grandfather calling the milk cows in from pasture: "cuuum baaas."
As a subscriber who is born and raised in Hawaii, I find your channel absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion.
Fascinating! The Americans Indians have done similar in the U.S. as well… this was a wonderful explanation of the process and a well needed highlight of the technique. You’ve once again done a great service.
With everything going on in your life, one of the most important person in your life is that older Gentleman with the gray mustache(your Dad), he's full of wisdom, grab and cherish every moment your spend with him, then share that wisdom with your children, my Dad past 15 yrs ago, we wasn't as close as you are with yours, I love this father and son videos, thanks for sharing your wisdom Sir. JJ Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
It has been good to watch you and your dad do a bit of traditional hedge laying!
Prince Charles enjoys hedgelaying! I've seen a hedge done by him and it was a beautiful think stock proof fence, so suitable for habitat as well. Not just hazel though. Mixed species. I'm very much enjoying seeing these skills talked about more widely. The revival in the 80s/90s seemed to have gone quiet so this is great.
Nice to see that the future king is good for something.
Great job, thank you for assisting in the resurrecting of these lost arts!
Brilliant video Mike - many thanks.
Great to see you doing this work. Laying hedges and making hurdles are two of the most satisfying things to do. Used to love doing it with my Dad - who was born in 1917. Unfortunately he passed when I was only 13 but he still taught me so many things.
On the terminology front we used to call the weaving of the live trees pleaching. We used to put the stakes in ahead of cutting so we could weave the live pleachers into the stakes. Our approach was to tidy up the laid branches so the hedge was clear of dead material as much as possible. What we were looking for was a nice clear environment so that you got plenty of straight shoots. The pleachers made the fence, not the dead material and made it easy to relay in the future. When we’d finished weaving the pleachers we used to cap the hedge with hazel binders to make sure the hedge held together. Important to remember that the stakes and the binders are not the fence - they are the supporting infrastructure for the pleachers - so we used to concentrate on getting the pleaching right and work the stakes and binders around that - doesn’t matter if they aren’t dead straight.
You did a great job Mike. Hot tip though is to leave as much of the live material and wood as you can on the pleached branches. You got two big heels and a thin strap. Try for something more like a heel and a wedge. This will encourage the sap to flow into pleached branch. Try to make the first cut 60ish degrees and only 3/4 of the way through if you can. Granted, the bigger the branch the harder that is to achieve though. Also it’s a multi year job - so you can cut down big trees and branches and wait for them to sprout. Then pleach the new shoots. Much easier to do!! You can also layer the new shoots too, to give you more to work with in future years.
It’s also good to let a tree grow up every so often - pick one that is a nice shape and bang on the right spot. This is great for strength and wildlife.
As you know there are many types of billhook - my favourites and the one I inherited from my dad and grandma is like a heavy duty spar hook with a square end. This is really useful for pulling branches toward you and cutting withies and heels simply by pulling sharply towards you - really useful if you can’t get a swing in.
Another thing I’d strongly consider is that you propagate some hazel to plant along the hedge line, between the stakes where you are short on pleaches. You can do this with green cuttings, or by layering withies from your existing stock and then transplanting in your new hedge line. You can probably find some videos on TH-cam to help.
Hope this has been useful.
Really looking forward to seeing your next videos.
Cheers MJD
Fantastic work. I can just remember my father and grandfather (yes, in their tweeds) doing this to maintain centuries-old field boundaries. I still remember my grandfather's rants against Churchill, whom he considered a warmonger and no better than that "Hitler chappie". Being firmly in the "none of our business" camp, he despised both because he was forced to get rid of most of the horses with which the farm had been worked since the year dot. I love the direction your channel is taking. The old ways are still the best. Practices that last millennia survive for a reason. I'm so glad that you appear to be intent on keeping them alive for another generation. Good for you.
Great series of video here. We need way more people like you guys here in France, too few of us fight to keep our woodlands healthy
Totally be with you
@@LosRiji 👍🏼
Good to know stuff 🌞🌞🌞
If you are looking for people in France, you could check out the RAF (réseau des alternatives forestières)
Complètement d’accord avec ce que tu dis. La majorité des forets sont dans un état de merde.
AYEEE I just broke my leg now I’m stuck in my bed and can’t go outside and so I’m sad now, but now I feel happy and I agree, we should bring on the old techniques
Incredible content mate! From here in the USA, the same applies. For wildlife, our whitetail deer thrive when they have tall grasses to bed in, and lots of boundary zones between woods and food plots. The same applies especially for migratory birds that seek not only water but also tall grasses to rest in. There is so much ancient (and modern) knowledge about building and improving the land to keep it healthy, while supporting farming, tree growth, soil enrichment, water purification, and flourishing wildlife. Thank you for compiling so much of it in your videos.
I also love that you met, connected with, and built camaraderie with your neighbor. Developed a solution to the problem that benefits both of you, the land, the heritage, and all of us. What a powerful message in such a simple deed.
I recently started doing this type of fencing at my house here is the US. And billhook is probably my favorite machete I've ever bought.
I have a lot respect for folks passing on old traditions/skills. Keep up the great work.
Thanks for showing - I've never seen this kind of method here in northern germany, though we have lots of hedges too. We don't lay them, just cut them down every seventh year, leaving one big tree every 50m and two or three small ones in between. The hedges are dividers, wind protection, habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. They raise the water level as well and create a positive micro-climate. They were called "poor mans forest". Small farms couldn't afford to grow a forest, but whenever you need a piece of wood for a broom, a handle or something, you can cut it out of the hedge. As you need a lot of small stuff, but only once in a while big trees to turn into lumber for a new house or barn, you need to maintain a matching set of wood of different sizes. The cutoffs we taken as firewood. As all the rocks and cobbles they found on the field were thrown in there, over the years they made a nice wall between the fields, preventing the soil to get washed away in heavy rainstorms. Sadly, many of them got removed when machines (and fields) grew bigger, but they lost the benefits as well, which they recently started to discover. Seems like climate change will bring more heavy rain and long lasting droughts, both can be attenuated by proper hedges.
Keep up your hard work, it's well worth while!
What a blessing to have your dad to work side by side with. Creating that natural hedgerow is brilliant. And yes nothing is better that the sights, sounds and smells of a woodland in all four seasons. Except owning your own woodland for yourselves and the next generation you’re creating as well. Thanks so much for allowing us to share this wonderful journey with you.
My grandfather, who was born in 1881 was a hedge layer by trade. Depending on the season, he spent his working life "hedging and ditching".
Thanks for this video. My only frame of reference for "hedgerows" is various war references. I had mistakenly assumed that these were just groomed yet naturally occurring. This method of building illustrates why these would be so treacherous for advancing forces. I read once, "for a new idea read an old book" it's curious how tradition and and technological advancement tend to seesaw and recirculate.
Great vid! I build fences and decks for a living. This living hedge is great and makes more sense then most fences. Not only is it cost effective it lasts longer and provides to the ecosystem instead of taking from it. Learning from our past should be essential yet it seems to be more of a hobby now a days.
I've wanted a living fence since reading Robinson Crusoe talk about making one from willows. Bought 20 acres this summer so it's on the long list of projects.
A lovely and well presented video!!
I’m so happy to have clicked on this as I’m dreading getting started on fencing off the boundaries of my new piece of land in the Spanish mountains, so I’m going to utilise the skills showcased in this video.
I will be using brambles to incorporate a thorny deterrent to animals and people that try to make their way through the land the wrong way and brambles can take root anywhere they make contact with ground that can support growth. So the hedgerows I’m going to create will actually continue living and will be productive by producing one of my favourite super fruits, blackberries!!
Brilliant information and wisdom!!
It's nice to to see the old ways still being used keep up the great work 👍🇬🇧
Thank you so much for including hedgelaying! I love it! I'm going to grow some new hedges on my farm and can't wait for them to grow big enough to lay 😀
Fascinating, great video! Native Americans taught the US Forest Service to pack "tree wounds" with clay and mud.
(To save sacred trees like Sequoias that were thousands of years old from fire. Bark usually falls off the base of the tree - the same level as fire.)
Outer bark - protects the tree not only from fire, but assault from plant viruses, bacteria, and hostile microbes like fungus.
The bark is like skin - take damage, and a sort of "infection" battle occurs in the plant.
To prevent disease-kill, one can take a few simple measures:
1) Sanitize your blade with rubbing alcohol. (Spray bottle.) Especially after use on another plant. (Think of your blade like a dirty needle - don't share.)
2) Pack the tree's wound with mud/clay. This will act as a scab as the tree beings to heal its wounds.
3) Spray-bottle the plant's wounds with an essential oil like Lavendar - which are different plants anti-microbial immune response.
4) Always burn your slash. The cut-up wood on the ground spreads disease. Burn it to prevent it, and fertilize the ground. Spread ashes.
You can apply disease-prevention measures in your garden at home too. Prune with sanitized shears. Apply a sort of clay or similar material after you have cut a plant.
Friend Lars,
Some thoughts on your snowmobile and life in general;
Living in Minnesota and now Wisconsin I am amazed that the snow machines of your friend and yours only have a single ski. Of the hundreds of thousands of machines I have seen, they all have two skies! I am frankly stunned the single ski units are as agile as you have demonstrated. If it was me, I would test out fitting a somewhat wider homemade ski in addition to the original.
Lastly, after seeing Miss P. Ninja for the past several years ( and as the proud papa of a number of my own) I am going to predict any life partners in her future should be cast in her dad's hearty imagine and never, ever underestimate her in any possible manner! I hereby award her one of my extra WARRIOR PRINCESS crowns.
Brings back some great memories from back in to 90's. The most satisfaction I've ever had laying a hedge.
Loved all the historical and functional details!
Enjoy the time with your dad Mike!
Thank you for your time in showing traditional hedge laying. I lived in a small village in Northamptonshire for the first 14 years of my life, the village was surrounded by a forest and farms. In the 70s I had the pleasure of witnessing the farmers doing traditional hedge laying. It looks a lot better than barb wire. Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing your hard work paying off.
Very inspirational. I have started one in Canada (Ottawa area ) where there is none to be seen. I thought that the very cold winter would prevent the survival of cut trees, but to my surprise and delight, they grow well and the system works just as well. I'll be working on this for many years. Thank You!
This has been fascinating. I can picuture and understand the hedges in the old stories I like to read so much better now!
Found a lot of your videos entertaining and informative, however this takes it to another level in understanding what went before and why! Well done. Nice seeing your Dad involved.
Glad you enjoyed it 👍🏻
I’m truly amazed by your videos! Thank you for bringing old knowledge to life.
This is really incredible stuff! I hope it catches on in America. It’s a beautiful and natural skill! Loved the established example 🙏🏻🤙🏻
American farmers have been doing it for at least 125 years
always happy to see your dad 😍 and i love watching your journey
As a horticulturist and botany enthusiast, few things bring me more joy than the wonder of folks discovering and appreciating how incredible plant biology is.
This video was very enjoyable to watch. :)
1 of the hardest crafts to master imo. We used to watch the young farmers competitions years ago and hedgelaying was a massive part of that.
It sure is a physically demanding task! But rewarding in the long run.
A very interesting peak into history. Much appreciated & very enjoyable. Thank you.
One minute in, love the craft of hedge laying. Fabulous.
So soothing experience, feels like I'm myself there!
It’s great to see the progression of the woodlands. There are so few forests that have not been detrimentally touched by humans, that loving management is so important.
I really respect and appreciate the work it takes to make these kinds of videos. Very cool and well done dude. Thank you for sharing your bushcraft skills, I will use them in my trips.
Thanks! Episodes like this one take a long time to make. Glad you enjoyed it 👍🏻
Beautifully organic in this crazy technological world.
Very cool traditional technique! Never seen such a hedge here in Ireland, it's definitely worth implementing someday! Thanks for sharing Mike!
I'm surprised you don't have hedge laying in Ireland. Similar species of tree around as you're in the same Northern Temperate zone as us. Would be worth looking into seeing if anyone does it over there.
@@TAOutdoors Where I am in West Co Cork, Ireland it is all stone walls made from field stone, there was so much stone they couldn't do anything else with it. I have seen in the midlands of Ireland hedges like this though. When is your dad next taking a fishing trip in Ireland?
Mother earth needs people like you ta
These techniques are timeless this is genuinely useful information, hedgelaying has become a lost art and this has inspired me to give it a try. Thanks for sharing these valuable skills with us and the historical background is fascinating, keep up the great work!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This has seriously answered questions I've had about hedgerows. Thank you.
Great video…I really think traditional woodland skills is a great direction to take the channel in part, now you own the woods. Owning woods myself, it’s too easy to go down the ‘community’ camp route and the woods become sterile and too ‘peoplely’ IMO.
Really love this and hope to see more.
Thank you for taking the time to explain the whole process! Here in the US there are very few examples of good hedge laying. I'm hoping to implement some of these techniques myself in the coming years!
Yes. We need a catalogue of suitable weed trees that send water shoots constantly. I'm thinking Privit. And if the climate works, even grapevines might work, tho they may climb into and kill surrounding trees.
@@DarkMoonDroid yeah, I've dealt with grape Vines before, and I'd probably avoid them unless I knew I could stay on top of keeping them trimmed!
@@TristanGreenlaw
Agreed. They are high-maintenance.
@@DarkMoonDroid Hazel already grows in the east half of the usa and can grow potentially most of the country according to commercial growing maps. I have beaked hazelnut growing wild up here in North BC. Look into getting a few, they propagate quickly and easily so shouldn't be expensive to get enough to hedge.
Truly great work TA, if only our governments had such pure intentions for our environment!
Your dad's hat says it all. Very interesting and I last did the laying back in the '80's, Another revival, Well done.
Love it when Grahams pottering about in the background
You produce such beautiful and valuable content, i was just about to look out for some footage, how to build such hedges... And here we go :)
Cheers from Germany my friend :)
Keep up the good work, I bought a little woodland myself and seeing it as responsibility having the chance to create an island for wildlife, I am very happy with your ideas.
Many thanks! I am pleased you enjoyed the video and hopefully got some ideas from it. All the best with your woodland.
You can also use the branches and trees growing into the field in your living hedge, just cut it thin enough to bend them back and you can also use those in your living hedge.
I really like hedge laying, it is really British, and it creates great places for birds to nest in.
Keep your hands and limbs well away from the edge of the billhook!
If you lay down every tree that is on the fence, the hedge will grow real thick and that will give improved privacy.
I bet you can make a lot of arrows from those straight pieces of hazel. Maybe that is why they also laid hedges.
I like watching the laying. Maybe you can put a camera somewhere and just play the entire day in a short minute or so, so you can see the progress.
Great effort on the hedge!
Im going to see if i can get my local wildlife people to get them into hedge laying too. It is really great for nature.
Greetings,
Jeff
HRH Charlie will be proud of what you’re doing😀great to see traditional skills
U never know when traditional Bushcraft will come in handy & yr learning as well as teaching history
Watching, learning from Tennessee, USA. Love the passion for nature and respect for skills of the past. Thank you.
What’s awesome is the excitement for each new shoot. You’re awesome for looking out for the wildlife birds and such they will love and care for you also as they really do understand your reasoning ✨💫💎
Inspirational and informative as always! Thank you for taking the time to document and explain this for this generation and future generations. We manage a small croft (Scottish Highlands family farm) and are attempting, year on year, to reintroduce more and more traditional, sustainable and environmentally positive elements here. Many thanks and all the best.
Glad to help!
Thank you for the knowledge you are providing. To know that you are doing this for you’re local ecology means much more respect from me! Keep it up
Mike, I think you must have been an awesome teacher. You have made a living hedge so very interesting. It’s not something I would normally be interested in but I have found this episode so interesting & have learned so much. Thanks!
This is a fascinating video, watching true woodland craft in action, plus nice to see billhooks getting featured, often a forgotten tool in bushcraft videos. Cheers Mike 👍
Billhooks are indeed often forgotten in this modern world of power tools, which does have the advantage that antique billhooks can sometimes be found quite cheaply at carboot sales etc. By looking at different billhook patterns in books or museums we can only theorise about their specific purpose or usage, but if you can find and recondition an antique billhook you get the chance to experience how it feels in use and appreciate how the regional differences suited their locale. I restored a particularly small lightweight Southern Counties style billhook (its quite possibly from a completely different locale) that is hopeless for older thicker growth or tougher species like Hawthorn, but is perfect for cutting young hazel poles. For the really tough work my trusty old Yorkshire billhook has the heft to get the job done. Ironically my yorkie is the only billhook that I bought 'new' so won't be classed as an antique (over 50 years old) for another five years or so... Yes it was mass produced in the 70s so doesn't have the history of a blacksmith crafted too, but I've always taken care to maintain it, and it's served me well! :). My name is stamped into the handle, and maybe decades from now someone will wonder about that name as I do with the names on antique billhooks that I have reconditioned (I always preserve these owner stamps)... To become part of the history of the craft, even in such a minor way, feels like a worthwhile legacy.
Did hedge laying in the UK in the late 1950s when working as a farmworker. Hard but satisfying work. The billhooks we used then had a short cutting edge on the back.. you brought back old memories. Never used hazel as stakes though, they tended to take root
Great insight to what you are doing to maintain your woodland with ancient old techniques . Thank you
I love hedgerows, I remember seeing them in Ireland when I was 7 and being in awe.
Amazing. Just excellent to see these old ways being carried on, learned anew, revived... So much history in Britain, whereas here in the States, even where we have preserved old ways, much that our more distant ancestors knew didn't make the trip across the pond.
I hate to say it, but there's a greater depth of content on many bushcraft channels coming out of the UK than most of the ones here in the US. Not that we don't have some great teachers here, but all too often these bushcraft channels just repeat the same old things, and half of it misinformed, incomplete, or wrong.
I really like how you've been narrating the past couple of videos
Beautiful work and you’re correct, nature is absolutely AMAZING!
Truly fascinating and very educational. I understand a part in the Bible now that talks about the "shoot" off of Jesse's stump more. Much of the Bible is written from a people who were very close to the land; cattle and land management, in ways so many of us city dwellers haven't a clue about. So I'm getting a double education! Thank you for explaining things so well! And especially for the field trip to see what it is to grow into. I'm really enjoying this far more than I thought I would.
Michael, fantastic! You are the best Stewart of your woodland! It will be great to go with you on this adventure! Great to see dear ol’ Dad too! Love from NW Colorado. Thanxz
Absolutely brilliant, you are an excellent teacher! I love the combined presentation of history and hands on skills it takes to maintain a woodland. I don't believe I've ever fully appreciated all that it takes, it truly enhances my love of nature and tradition. Thank you!
I had absolutely no clue that hedge laying was a thing. Thank you
You'll be glad to know I've been on a hedgelaying course, and have done a few live hedges as well as dead hedges.
Mine are more ornamental rather than stock proof, the ones at the allotment to reduce the height of existing hedges to let more light into the allotments.
I recently made a dead hedge for a customer, replacing a rotten fence at the bottom of their garden, but also planted some whips behind them - when the deadhedge rots away in 5-10 years, there'll be a hedge I can then lay into a live hedge.
Being Canadian and having never seen a hedge row I now have a visual reference when listening to Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven . " If there's a bustle in your hedge row " . Thanks .
I'm really liking this series and where you've taken the channel.
As someone with land, I appreciate how maintaining and creating habitat will bring in a new host of animals and birds. For example; leaving a dead-standing tree trunk for woodpeckers and squirrels to move into instead of harvesting it for firewood, or leaving large old trunks down on the ground as a spot where foxes can shelter. It's amazing because decisions made years ago are showing results and I'm only realizing the positive impact now.
Just this past Autumn I was toying with harvesting the standing trunk of a large poplar (Aspen) that had lost it's top in the wind, however, after seeing how many creatures have taken advantage of similar trunks in the past, I decided to leave it. I can't wait to see what moves in!
You could set up cameras and keep tabs on what was happening with the old Aspen. Something similar to Robert Fuller's camera set ups. Maybe you could start your own U-tube vlog.....
Reminded me of Hooper's Rule. Hedges that have existed for hundreds of years are colonised by additional species. This may be useful as a means of determining the age of the hedge. Hooper's rule (named for Dr. Max Hooper) is based on ecological data obtained from hedges of known age, and suggests that the age of a hedge can be roughly estimated by counting the number of woody species counted in a thirty-yard distance and multiplying by 110 years.[11]
I enjoyed watching that.
Haven't seen it done locally for decades.
This autumn, one of my customers wanted their overgrown boundary hedge laying.
Like yourselves, to secure the garden, but more importantly to create a better wildlife habitat.
Looked it up online for tips and techniques etc, and set to with it.
Now awaiting the spring to see the results.
I love watching your videos and now this helps me understand why things were done on the Old Farm
I live on a council estate which was built in 1939 and at the bottom of my garden is a hazel tree which to me looks like it was coppiced a long long time ago just with how big and wide it has gone.
I then put two and two together and figured out that the tree probably pre dated the gardens and was a part of the old farm which was once here.
Amazing to think that my ancestors once worked that tree for its resources.
And after watching this video you have inspired me to use the hazel tree and create my own natural fence from it and I’m going to remove my wooden one that is there now.
Great video mate. As always I take away good knowledge and get to a great bit of outdoor beauty. The bit at the end showing others previous work with new growth was a great highlight. Cheers
Michael your good at doing all the stuff around you. Thank you for sharing this with us 💓. ... Arkansas Clyde 65 🇺🇸🌲👍.