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Dating
Ancient Hedges in West Wales................
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The map on the right
was published in 1850. It shows the road
leading to our farm 'Motygido' - shown on the map as 'Bot-y-gido'
with its perimeter outlined in red. On the right is the
A487 - Cardigan to Aberystwyth road.
We know the roads and
hedges here are old, but just how old are they?
We sampled the hedges
at 5 locations shown in red using 'Hooper's Law' -
a method devised by Dr. Max Hooper in the 1950's for
dating hedges in the English Midlands.
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On the
right - just before the trees and where the river flows
down to Llanina is the
hedge near to where the cottage 'Rhyd-y-pennau' was located -
see our Mr Jacob's Lily
page about its previous inhabitants. |
Moira is recording woody species
on the inside of the same hedge shown on the left.
Because of the height of the hedge above the road, we
checked species on both sides.
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Hooper's Law is based
upon the number of woody species found in a 30m (100
ft.) length of hedge. Using hedges of known age from old
maps, he found that the number of species X 100 roughly
equals the age of the hedge. However at least 3 random
samples should be taken and an average calculated.
West Wales is on
roughly the same latitude as the English Midlands and in
our area, hedges rather than stone walls have been used
throughout history to delineate field margins.
Consequently we consider the same dating method as valid
in this area. We counted species in 5 - 30m
lengths of hedge - excluding climbers and shrubs such as
Bramble, Dog Rose and Honeysuckle. The results are shown
below - the numbers indicate the locations on the map
above.
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| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Hazel |
Sycamore |
Birch |
Sallow |
Hazel |
| Oak |
Hazel |
Gorse |
Hazel |
Rowan |
| Blackthorn |
Rowan |
Oak |
Hawthorn |
Sallow |
| Hawthorn |
Hawthorn |
Hawthorn |
Rowan |
Dogwood |
| Sallow |
Blackthorn |
Sallow |
Sycamore |
Sycamore |
| Rowan |
Ash |
Hazel |
Oak |
Blackthorn |
| Laburnum |
Sallow |
Rowan |
Ash |
Hawthorn |
| |
Gorse |
Blackthorn |
Blackthorn |
Birch |
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Birch |
Oak |
| Total = 7 |
Total = 8 |
Total = 8 |
Total = 9 |
Total = 9 |
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The average number of
species in the 5 chosen locations is 8.2 - indicating a
hedge age exceeding 800 years. There is some
documentary evidence that our farm 'Motygido' was there
more than 400 years ago, but this hedge dating method
suggests that the road leading to the properties
'Motygido' and 'Goitre' is very much older.
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The hedge on the
right of this photograph is at location number 3 -
formerly beside a road, but now bordering a field. The
existence of the former road is indicated by the
line of Oak trees now growing some 15 m inside the field
boundary and the change in levels.
İRod Attrill 2003
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