Traditional hedge laying for Deal and Walmer country hedges: South of England style, species, timing and what it costs.
Most of the hedges I work on across Deal and Walmer are garden hedges: privet, laurel, griselinia, leylandii. But the country hedges that run the field boundaries around Sholden, Upper Deal, Kingsdown approach lanes and the inland edges of Mill Hill are a different thing entirely. When a hawthorn or blackthorn hedge is genuinely neglected, the right answer is not always a hard cut. Sometimes it is laying: the traditional South of England technique that rejuvenates the whole structure, closes the gaps at the base, and produces a hedge that will outlast anything planted this century.
Before you start: safety on hedge laying work
Hedge laying is physically demanding and involves sharp tools close to the hands and face. Before starting:
- Cut-resistant gloves. Billhook, chainsaw and hand saw work near the fingers. Level-B cut-resistant gloves are the minimum; chainsaw gauntlets for any chainsaw use.
- Eye protection. Flying chips from a billhook or saw are a constant hazard. Safety glasses or a face shield throughout.
- Steel-toe boots. Falling branches and billhook misses. Steel-toecap is non-negotiable; chainsaw-rated boots if a chainsaw is in use.
- Chainsaw PPE. If you are using a chainsaw to deal with larger stems (over 75 mm), chainsaw trousers or chaps, helmet, visor and chainsaw gloves are required. Do not use a chainsaw without the full kit.
- Work with a second person. Hedge laying in a remote field boundary near the Kingsdown cliffs or Sholden lane is not safe solo if you are new to the technique. Inexperienced layerers should always work with someone who knows the cuts.
- Wasp nest check. Dormant-season work (November onwards) greatly reduces the wasp risk, but check before starting any hedge line.
What hedge laying actually does, and why it matters for a neglected country hedge.
Hedge laying is not the same as cutting a hedge hard or renovating an overgrown garden privet. The technique involves cutting each main stem most of the way through near the base, bending it almost horizontal without breaking it, and weaving it along the hedge line so it continues to live and draw nutrients through the thin layer of wood still connecting it to the root. The stem, now called a pleacher, puts out new shoots from its full length. Stakes are driven into the hedge at regular intervals, and the tops of the stakes are bound with flexible rods, traditionally hazel, to hold the structure in place while the new growth comes up from the base over three to five years.
The result is a hedge that is dense at the base, impenetrable from both sides, and structurally sound in a way that a clipped or hard-cut hedge never quite achieves. For the native hawthorn and blackthorn hedges that run the field and lane boundaries around Sholden, Upper Deal and the inland approach to Kingsdown, laying is the technique that was designed for them, and the one that genuinely works on a 15 or 20-year-old hedge that has started to go leggy and gappy at the bottom.
Phill Piddell demonstrates the full South of England style technique in a video produced for Hedgelink, the national hedgerow partnership backed by Defra and the Wildlife Trusts: "How to: Traditional Hedge Laying in the South of England Style" on YouTube. It is 38 minutes and worth watching before you pick up a billhook. The Kent pattern billhook, which has a deeper blade and a short nose compared to the Berkshire pattern, is the correct tool for working the base of a hedge in Kent conditions.
Which species can be laid and which cannot: a comparison.
Not every species responds to laying. The technique works on species that will regenerate from cut or stressed wood and push new growth from the base and along the pleacher. Species that regenerate from old wood are the candidates. Garden species like privet, griselinia, leylandii and laurel are not appropriate for hedge laying: they are either too brittle, unable to recover from the pleaching cut, or not suited to the traditional stock-proof structure the technique creates. Native country species are the natural candidates, with some important differences between them.
| Species | Suitable for laying? | Recovery time (new base growth) | Also used as stakes/binders? | Notes for CT14 coastal and inland conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) | Excellent | 3–5 years | Stakes only (too spiny for binders) | The traditional primary species for South of England laying. Dense, thorny, stock-proof and wildlife-rich. Common in the Kingsdown approach lanes and Sholden hedgerow boundaries. Handles the coastal alluvium and shingle conditions of lower CT14 well, though it prefers the heavier inland soils around Upper Deal and Mill Hill where growth is more vigorous. |
| Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) | Very good | 2–4 years | No (too brittle for binders; can stake) | Blackthorn recovers quickly from the laying cut and pushes strong new growth from the base. More tolerant of the salt wind than hawthorn when young, which makes it common in the more exposed Kingsdown lane hedges running toward the clifftop. Suckers freely: expect new growth not just from the pleacher but from the root system for 2–3 years after laying, which fills gaps but needs managing so the hedge does not spread into the adjacent field or path. |
| Field maple (Acer campestre) | Good | 4–6 years | Stakes only | Field maple is less common in the CT14 hedgerow mix than hawthorn or blackthorn but appears in the inland boundaries around Mill Hill and Upper Deal. It lays well and produces good autumn colour, but takes longer than hawthorn to establish a dense base after laying. Good for structural variety in a mixed native hedge rather than as the primary species. |
| Hazel (Corylus avellana) | Good (but coppicing often preferred) | 2–3 years | Yes (primary source of stakes and binders) | Hazel lays, but its coppiced growth is so useful as stakes and binders for the rest of the hedge that many layerers manage the hazel in the hedge by coppicing it rather than laying it, then using the resulting straight rods as material for the rest of the job. In Kingsdown and Sholden hedges where hazel is present, I typically coppice the hazel stools and leave the hawthorn and blackthorn for laying. Hazel recovers from the base very fast, which is the point of coppicing it. |
| Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) | Fair (secondary species) | 3–5 years | No | Dogwood is too flexible and thin-stemmed to anchor as a pleacher but it is a useful filler in a mixed hedge and will respond well to the opening up of a laid hedge by pushing new growth. If dogwood is present, it is usually better to cut the existing stems back to 150 mm above ground while laying the hawthorn around it, then let it regenerate into the base. Good wildlife value: red stems through winter, berries for birds, flowers for pollinators. |
| Elder (Sambucus nigra) | Not suitable | N/A | No | Elder stems are soft-pith and brittle: they snap rather than bending when you attempt to pleach them and they do not produce the root-connected hinge that makes laying work. Cut elder back hard or remove it from the hedge line entirely during a laying job and let the surrounding hawthorn and blackthorn fill the gap. Elder that is left as a loose shrub alongside a laid hedge is fine for wildlife value. |
| Holly (Ilex aquifolium) | Not suitable for standard laying | N/A | No | Holly is too rigid and spiny to lay in the traditional style. Where holly appears in a country hedge it is best left as a standard or allowed to grow as a shrub within the hedge rather than being included in the pleaching work. Holly adds wildlife value (berries for winter thrushes on the Kingsdown SSSI corridor) and structural variety, but it will not bend without snapping. |
| Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) | Possible, but check health first | 5–7 years | Stakes only (if healthy) | Ash can be laid and has been in traditional hedges for centuries. However, ash dieback (Chalara fraxinea) is now present across Kent and is affecting a significant proportion of ash in CT14 hedgerows. Before committing to laying an ash stem, check carefully for crown dieback, lesions at stem junctions and bark discolouration. A severely affected ash may not recover from the laying cut. If in any doubt, take the ash out of the hedge entirely and allow hawthorn or blackthorn to fill the gap. |
Laying versus the alternatives: which method suits which neglected hedge.
Hedge laying is not always the right answer. For a garden hedge of privet or leylandii that has become overgrown, the renovation approach (staged hard cutting over two or three seasons) is correct: see the overgrown hedge guide for that. For a native country hedge, the choice between laying, hard cutting, coppicing and regular trimming depends on the hedge's age, species mix, condition, and what you need it to do. The table below compares the four main options.
| Method | Skill required | Approximate contractor cost | Recovery time | Wildlife value after work | Stock-proof? | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hedge laying (South of England style) | High (specialist) | £25–£45 per metre | 3–5 years to full density | Very high (dense base, bare earth exposed in winter for invertebrates, new growth for nesting) | Yes, once established | Hawthorn/blackthorn hedges aged 15–40 years with stems 50–120 mm diameter. Gappy at the base but structurally sound stems still present. Field boundaries, Kingsdown lanes, Sholden hedgerows. |
| Hard cut (coppice-style cut to 150–300 mm) | Medium | £10–£18 per metre | 2–4 years | Medium (coppice stools attract insects; less dense structure than a laid hedge in the short term) | No (a temporary fence is needed during recovery) | Hedges too old or thick to lay, or where laying budget is not available. Also where the hedge has been neglected so long that most stems are dead at the base. |
| Annual flail or trimmer cut (maintenance) | Low–medium | £3–£8 per metre | Ongoing (maintains existing structure) | Low (regular cutting prevents berry crops forming; removes nest sites) | Maintains existing barrier only | Hedges already in good structural condition. Does nothing to restore a gappy or leggy hedge: it just stops further deterioration. On wildlife grounds, alternating sides of the hedge in alternate years and cutting on a two-year cycle is better than an annual all-over trim. |
| No management (leave as growing) | None | £0 | N/A (deteriorates) | Variable (mature scrub has some value but the hedge character and stock-proofing are lost) | No (gaps form and widen over years) | Not a sustainable option for a boundary hedge. A country hedge left unmanaged for 20–30 years becomes individual trees rather than a hedge line. Useful only for deliberate scrub creation as a separate habitat goal. |
Timing: when to lay a hedge in the Deal and Walmer area.
The traditional window for hedge laying is November to February: the dormant season. This is the same window that is safest under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (see below), and it is also the time of year when sap flow is lowest, stems are easiest to see without full leaf cover, and the pleaching cut heals most slowly, which turns out to be an advantage because the hinge stays alive longer at low metabolic activity rather than drying out rapidly in warm weather.
In practical terms for the CT14 area: November is when I would schedule the first site visit and planning for a laying job on a Sholden lane hedge or an Upper Deal field boundary. December and January are the main working months. February is a realistic cut-off, particularly on the Kingsdown hedges that back onto the SSSI corridor: nesting can start earlier than the legal 1 March date on sheltered south-facing slopes, and I would rather finish by mid-February on those sites and err on the safe side.
Do not attempt to lay a hedge in spring or summer. A pleaching cut made while the sap is rising produces a hinge that dries out and breaks, the stem dies, and the hedge is worse off than before. The dormant window is not a convention: it is a biological requirement of the technique.
Nesting season: WCA 1981 applies to hedge laying too
The UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1 makes it an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy an active wild bird's nest. The legal nesting season runs 1 March to 31 August. The safe cutting window is September to the end of February, and this applies to hedge laying as much as to any hedge cutting: the process of clearing brash and restructuring the hedge line removes or disturbs dense vegetation that may contain active nests if the work is done in the wrong season.
On hedges adjacent to the Kingsdown–Dover Cliffs SSSI and the Kingsdown approach lane scrub, stonechats, whitethroats and linnets use the hedgerow edges for nesting. A slow walk of the full hedge line before starting any work in the March–August window is required. On those sites I am more cautious than the law requires: I walk them carefully and if there is any active nesting in the scrub immediately adjacent to the hedge, I come back later rather than disturb it. See the full nesting-season guide for the Kingsdown-specific detail.
How the South of England style differs from other regional techniques.
The UK has over a dozen regional hedge-laying styles, each evolved for local farming needs and native species. The South of England style, which covers Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, is the one that applies to the Deal and Walmer countryside. Its distinguishing features compared to the Midland or Welsh styles are:
- Double brush on both sides. In the South of England style the brash is trimmed off both sides of the laid pleachers immediately after laying, leaving a tidy double-sided face rather than the single-sided brush of some northern styles.
- Single row of stakes. Stakes are driven along the centre line of the hedge, roughly every 450 mm (18 inches), rather than the double row used in some Midland styles.
- Hazel binders. Flexible hazel rods are twisted around the top of the stakes to bind the structure together and hold the pleachers in place for the first three to four years while new growth comes up.
- 30-degree lay angle. Pleachers are laid at roughly 30 degrees above horizontal, which is slightly shallower than some styles. This angle is well suited to the hawthorn and blackthorn stem diameters common in Kent hedgerows.
- Kent pattern billhook. The traditional tool for this style. The Kent billhook has a deeper blade than the Berkshire pattern and a short nose that works well for making the pleaching cut at the base of a stem without over-cutting into the hinge. A sharp blade is not optional: a dull billhook tears rather than cuts and produces a hinge that will not survive.
For a full visual and practical demonstration, Phill Piddell's video for Hedgelink covers every step from clearing the brash to tying off the top binder: "How to: Traditional Hedge Laying in the South of England Style". Kent Wildlife Trust also runs occasional practical workshops where participants can try the technique under supervision, which I would strongly recommend before attempting a full hedge line solo.
DIY versus contractor for hedge laying around Deal and Walmer.
Hedge laying is a skilled task that most gardeners should not attempt without training. The pleaching cut requires judgement about exactly how far to cut through the stem: too little and the stem is too stiff to lay without snapping the hinge; too much and you sever the living connection entirely and the pleacher dies. Getting that right across 30 or 40 metres of mixed-species hedge, with stems ranging from 30 to 120 mm in diameter, takes practice. That said, the technique can be learned: Kent Wildlife Trust runs warden workshops, and the South of England Hedge Laying Society holds training days and competitions that are open to newcomers.
For the Sholden and Upper Deal field boundaries I have laid, the job typically runs at three to four days of work per 100 metres of hedge, including the clearing, laying and staking. A professional hedgelayer working at 20–30 metres per day (a realistic pace for a mixed hawthorn and blackthorn hedge with stems of varying diameter) will charge in the £25–£45 per metre range including clearing and disposal of the brash. That is materially more than a hard cut, but the result is a hedge that does not need major intervention again for 20–25 years rather than one that needs revisiting in 10.
Grants are available in some cases for traditional hedge laying on agricultural land. The Environmental Land Management scheme (ELM) and its predecessors have included hedgerow management as a supported habitat action: if you own agricultural land in the Sholden or Upper Deal area, it is worth checking the current Countryside Stewardship or SFI options through the Rural Payments Agency, as a substantial part of the laying cost may be recoverable. This does not apply to garden or curtilage hedges.
After the laying: what to expect in the years following.
A freshly laid hedge looks almost nothing like a traditional hedge. The main stems are now nearly horizontal, the brash from the sides has been cleared, and the whole structure is open, low and somewhat bare. This is correct. In the first spring after laying, new shoots begin to emerge from the pleachers, from the cut stumps of stems removed entirely, and from the root system. By the second summer the new growth is 300–500 mm tall and beginning to fill in the structure. By year four or five the new growth from the base, which is where the laying is doing its primary work, should be dense enough to close the gaps that prompted the laying in the first place.
The planted stakes and binders will die back over three to four years: they are temporary scaffolding, not a permanent structure. The stakes should be treated as expendable from the moment they go in. The laid pleachers remain alive throughout and drive the recovery of the hedge. Once the new growth has consolidated, the hedge is maintained by an annual or biennial light trim on the side faces, keeping the traditional rounded or A-frame profile that allows light into the base and prevents the crown from shading out the lower growth that is the whole point of the exercise.
Interested in hedge laying for a Deal, Walmer or Kingsdown country hedge? Talk to me.
I work across the CT14 area including the field boundaries around Sholden, Upper Deal and the Kingsdown approach lanes. Hedge laying is specialist work and not a job for a first visit quote over the phone: I need to see the hedge, check the species mix, gauge the stem diameters and confirm there are no access issues before giving a price. Call or WhatsApp me on 07763 100 477, email hello@dealhedges.co.uk, or use the contact form to arrange a site visit.
Sources: Phill Piddell, "How to: Traditional Hedge Laying in the South of England Style" (Hedgelink, hedgelink.org.uk, video via YouTube); Hedgelink, "Hedgelink: Working together for the UK's hedgerows" (hedgelink.org.uk); Kent Wildlife Trust, "The art of hedgelaying & why wildlife depends on hedges" (kentwildlifetrust.org.uk); UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; South of England Hedge Laying Society (sehls.weebly.com); Forestry Commission, "Managing hedgerows" guidance; Rural Payments Agency, Countryside Stewardship and SFI scheme guidance.