Ancient hedgerows

Miles and miles of ancient hedgerows give the low weald its familiar pattern.

As well as creating our distinctive patchwork landscape, they are essential to biodiversity, providing shelter, food and routes for species to travel along, acting as navigation aids for animals such as bats, and linking habitats together. Often formed from a mix of native woody shrubs, with ancient trees, they are a refuge for woodland plant species.

In this part of Sussex, many hedge lines date back to Roman Times and the Middle Ages, created by woodland clearance.

Some associated species

Noctule Bat Nyctalus noctula

Tree Sparrow Passer montanus

Brown Hairstreak Thecla betulae

Scorpion Fly Panorpa communis

Hazel Corylus avellana

Field Maple Acer campestre

A hedgerow is important (and is protected by law) if it’s at least 30 years old and meets at least one of these criteria:

• marks all or part of a parish boundary that existed before 1850
• contains an archaeological feature such as a scheduled monument
• is completely or partly in or next to an archaeological site listed on a Historic Environment Record (HER), (formerly a Sites and Monuments Record)
• marks the boundary of an estate or manor or looks to be related to any building or other feature that’s part of the estate or manor that existed before 1600
• is part of a field system or looks to be related to any building or other feature associated with the field system that existed before the Inclosure Acts (that is before 1845)
• contains protected species listed in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
• contains species that are endangered, vulnerable and rare and identified in the British Red Data books
• includes woody species and associated features as specified in Schedule 1, Part II Criteria, paragraph 7(1) of the regulations

You and I could be fined £5,000 for removing a protected hedgerow. Highways England just use compulsory purchase orders. In previous projects, they have claimed that planting a 'new' hedge along the route of new roads is sufficient mitigation for the damage they have done to biodiversity.