Courtyard Farm, Ringstead, Norfolk. 6-7th November 2010
This was our residential weekend away, doing some hedgelaying for
Lord
Peter Melchett on his North Norfolk Estate near Ringstead. The
accommodation was in the bunk barn on the
Courtyard Farm Estate, a cosy but perfectly adequate bunkhouse that 11
of us settled into on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, we headed down the road to the field where a recently
planted hedge awaited the first laying of its existence. It was an
ideal size for laying. Both sides had already been flailed (messy but
effective), so the first task was to clear out the remaining scrub and
remove the tree guards. We worked in pairs, novices with more
experienced vols ('experienced' meaning anyone who had done hedgelaying at
least once!). A variety of techniques soon emerged, from short sharp hinges
to foot long straps.
Lord Melchett appeared around lunchtime to survey our progress so far and
seemed happy, although I fear he was a little optimistic of our potential
speed, pointing out a second hedge we could tackle on Sunday! A couple of us
went back to the farm to collect stakes, a huge pile of which had been
prepared by the Estate's contract forester.
Now with stakes available, the hedge laying progressed apace and soon
started to look like a traditional layed hedge, albeit with a variety of
techniques in evidence. Mid morning, we stopped for a tea break, where
Stu brought out some fantastic millionaire shortbread, prepared the day
before by his local pub landlady, best i'd ever tasted!
As the sun ran out of sky time, we headed back to base where Nick's
excellent sausage casserole awaited us, having been slow cooking over the
day, accompanied by carrots, cauliflower and mash. Dessert was an
excellent apple crumble prepared by Lucy. The opportunity of a
firework display in Hunstanton and/or a trip to the local, highly
recommended pub in Ringstead both feel by the wayside in favour of a night
in chatting and playing party games (although Stu and Linda opted for an
evening breath of fresh air which did encompass the pub, a 3 mile round trip
walk and a starry night sky).
Sunday dawned crisp and clear and we continued the hedging, making sure we
only prepared what we could complete. At the morning tea break, Jeff
produced his promised fruit cake, another excellent example of quality
baking, that went down extremely well with the cup of tea. We tidied
up at around 3pm, leaving piles of cut material for the Estate workers to
collect later (cars and livestock prohibiting a bonfire). We had
completed about a quarter of the total hedge length and just under half of
the layable section (some sections not being mature enough yet). All
in all a thoroughly enjoyable task.
Julian
(More photos on the LCG Picasa website)
