Thought I would pull together the social media posts on the first two courses Devon Rural Skills Trust has run since the long, frustrating Covid shutdown. They were written, of course, to aid the charity’s publicity but I hope they tell a story too, however briefly.
25 September
It means so much to be back running courses again after 18 months of uncertainty. And what an atmospheric Dartmoor day to come back to, misty early on, a slight mizzle mid-way through, and ending with tor-topped hills and the surrounding farmland gin-clear in afternoon sunshine. The job: to repair about 10 yards of broken down wall and make it stock proof, all in a day. The section of wall, at Higher Badworthy farm, near South Brent, was a bit of a hybrid, double-skinned (two faces with an in-filled centre) in the normal way but narrower at one end than the other, in order to marry with the stones in the adjoining walls at either end. A lot of soil came out during the dismantling – always the first task of a wall repair – and it went back in with the foundation stones, a no-no for the purists but it makes for a durable foundation, similar to that of a Devon hedge bank. Above that
came the classic dry stone walling in-fill, each stone placed by hand between the blocks of granite that formed the faces, one course of stones sitting on top of the other. After about five hours of work the job was done and we had our new section of wall, which was sturdy, elegant and stock proof. Thanks to everybody who came along, worked so hard and built such a good wall. Top day, top team.
16 October
A small and hopefully uplifting Covid story here. A few weeks before the first lockdown we laid a section of this hedge – see the two-summer’s regrowth in the background (pictured). On Saturday
we were able to go back and carry on where we left off, the refreshed, freshly-laid part stretching into the foreground ready to get on with its life. We had an untypical October edge-of-Dartmoor day for out first hedgelaying course in 18 months, with glorious sunshine throughout, and laid about 40 yards, flat on top of a bank in the good old fashioned Devon style. The hedge was a luscious mixture of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, field maple, sycamore and wild rose, with a tiny bit of oak thrown in – the kind of tangled-up diversity characteristic of a traditionally-managed hedge that is so important for wildlife, and for helping to capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Something techy for the hedgelayers: in one gappy part a leaning hawthorn was
only ever going to be laid in one direction, the gap was in the other. The answer was to lay it where it wanted to go and cut a ‘back-pleach’ to get the bulk of the hawthorn into the gap. A rare bit of skill, which only occasionally comes out of the hedgelayer’s back pocket. Environment minister Victoria Prentis recently described hedges as “sexy and important” – we think she got it right on both counts. I shall end with a message to all 19 who came along on and worked so hard – you laid one very sexy hedge.
