A survey of hedgerows in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning
allowing free access to stock through the many gaps that eventually formed. As farming practice
changed, or energetic sons took over from ageing fathers, some of these would either have been
grubbed out or replanted. They would also make minor alterations to their field boundaries in order to
get the best out of their farms. Even during the height of the Great Agricultural Depression some
farmers - such as the Randall family at Fryerning Hall - ran a well maintained farm, producing a wide
range of produce, while in an earlier century even such a severe farming critic as Arthur Young felt
able to commend the efficiency of the Coverdale family, who ran Ingatestone Hall Farm. That so
many ancient hedgerows in the parish still survive is due in large part to the industry of such farmers.
One of the widely accepted ways to age a hedge is based on what has become known as Hooper's Rule.
This states that the number of species found in a sample length of 30 yards of hedge is approximately
equal to the age of the hedge in centuries. Undcrshrubs such as bramble and woody climbers like
Bryony and Honeysuckle are excluded. Rackham (1980, pages 194-195) gives a list of trees and shrubs
that he recommends be used in hedge dating and only these species were included when compiling
Table 2. This attempts to distinguish between hedges on pre-1600 field boundaries and those planted
between 1600 and 1900. Although the latter hedges do, on average, appear to contain slightly fewer
species than the former, the sample of post-1600 hedges is too small to make the comparison meaningful.
The majority of hedges planted between 1600 and 1900 have been grubbed out since 1945. Most of
those that remain arc confined to The Hyde. In 1818 the then owner, the Reverend John Disney, paid to
have the public roads re-routed away from his house, as previously, they had passed so close to his
grand residence, that the local riffraff could peer in through the windows! The hedges that flank the
new roads are thought to have been planted soon afterwards, as photographs taken in the late 19th
century show that they are already long established. Rather than be content with common and garden
thorn hedges he appears to have chosen a wide range of species, including Oak, Ash and Holly, and
these species-rich hedges have undoubtedly influenced the results in Table 1.
The part that the whims (or preferences) of individual landowners played in the species composition of
old hedgerows has often been discounted, but it is difficult not to interpret some of the results in Table
1 in this way. How else to understand the remarkable concentration of hornbeam in hedges at Howlett's
Hall, the preponderance of Hazel in the Spring Farm/Lyndsey Hall complex, or the number of holly in
hedges at The Hyde, compared with its immediate neighbour, Handley Barns? Some of the species in
the final third of that list arc undoubtedly down to the whims of current landowners. However, the table
also clearly demonstrates the species richness of many hedges in the parish, especially on long established
farms like Handley Barns and Howlett's Hall. Perhaps the truth of the matter is - as others have commented
- that although Hooper's Rule can give an approximate guide to the age of hedges it needs to be used
with caution and in conjunction with detailed knowledge of local landscape history.
Conservation and the future
Hedgerows that form part of field systems that arc over one hundred and fifty years old - and have
been registered as such by the relevant local authority - now receive some protection under the
Hedgerows Regulations of 1997. Thus the threat of more hedges being grubbed out has receded.
Unfortunately, although the Act protects ancient hedgerows from destruction it makes no financial
provision for their maintenance and this is where the main danger to their continued existence now
lies. At the present time the best managed hedges in Ingatestone and Fryerning are on the larger
arable farms such as Handley Green, Howlett's Hall, The Hyde and Margaretting Hall, but very
few of the field (as opposed to roadside) hedges on these farms survived the post-war onslaught.
From a wildlife point of view it could be argued that the remaining hedges on these farms are over-
managed, in the sense that they are cut too short and cut too often, but at least many of them are still
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)