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The growing use of centre pivots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center-pivot_irrigation) have seen quite a few of the old hedges go here. Google earth shows you those (see central north Tas. ...no, they are not alien crop circles :ROFLMAO:) and I can see they don't seem to be a thing in the UK ,I assume that's because you don't irrigate crops much?
 
There are plenty of people still hedgelaying. personally I know a few people who spend their winters out laying hedges - contracted to do so by other landowners. In fact, some ten or so years ago there were regenaration grants availably with Welsh Government under the tir cymen scheme (I think) with farmers being encouraged to cut down ailing/straggly hedges to the base to encourage new growth so that a few years later the hedges could be relaid, the grants included money to put up fences to replace/protect the hedges until they grew back the pigwire they used was not as good quality as normal as it wasn't meant to last forever, if I remember it had a greenish tint and people around here labelled the cheaper wire 'tir cymen wire'
Of course, every area has its own hedging style, our area has a method which is much easier to work and just lays the branches down and secures them with forked sticks made from the thinnings they discard, when the ditches were then cleaned, the soil dug out would be deposited on top of the hedge which slowly over the years would develop into a bank with the hedge growing through it. Hedgelayers in the Rhandirmwyn area were renowned for their neat, good looking hedges which also entailed weaving the new horizontals through vertical stakes making the hedges virtually indestructible and they were much in demand in the surrounding area
A good few years ago I was researching some drainage after flooding. Drainage dykes and ditches led to study of the enclosures awards. It was documented that the award required certain plot boundaries to have drainage ditches dug along (within) one or more specified edges. The spoil to be heaped up to form an embankment on the plot division to neighbouring ownership. Hedges then planted on top of the earth banking so formed. This led to the adage currently in use - " your hedge = your dyke (with resulting maintenance responsibilities). 🥺
 
Here in the Mournes the farmers are wild for cutting everything back to the bare bones, My neighbour farmer was out today cutting outside the kitchen window and I had to go out and tell him what he was doing was so wrong . He knew how annoyed I was with hedge cutting and at one point was for driving back out of the field and not cutting it lol In the end I talked him into cutting the face and letting the top grow a bit more.
 
Did you ask him why he cuts so severely?
It's just a Mourne thing, it's always been done like this, a lot of it is just to keep face, if the hedges got long the neighbouring farmer would be talking about them. Tradition. I have been in this house now 11 years and not one new tree has got a chance to grow for as far as I can see.
 

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