For our latest instalment in the Heritage Crafts series, we spoke with Steven, the Devon Hedge Layer — a professional hedge layer since 2005 and a respected competitor on the national circuit. Working across Devon and beyond, Steven specialises in the traditional craft of hedgelaying, preserving and restoring living boundaries that have shaped the British countryside for centuries. Through his work — and his growing presence on social media — he offers a rare insight into the skill, patience and environmental importance behind this ancient rural practice.
How did you first get into hedgelaying, and what drew you to this specific craft?
I have been hedgelaying, or “Steeping” as we call it in Devon, since 2005. I had just qualified as a P.E. teacher but didn’t secure a job after graduating so I started doing supply work. During school holidays and when I didn’t have any supply work, I helped my friend Nathan who had a countryside services business at the time. In the winter he had some hedgelaying work to do and that was the first time I came across it really. In 2007 I still couldn’t get a teaching job so I decided to give myself a job and set up as a gardener and in winter did a few hedgelaying jobs, but it became my passion when I spectated at a hedge laying competition in 2010 and was blown away by the skill and artistry on display that day and promised myself that one day I would be as good as those craftspeople.
Can you explain what hedgelaying involves for someone who’s never tried it? What are the key steps and skills required?
To create a laid hedge it is firstly thinned out, coppicing the material that isn’t suitable due to it’s size or position within the hedgerow. The remaining trees are cut to just over two thirds through, on a long slightly angled cut, and laid over. These are called steepers here in Devon but commonly known as pleachers. These steepers are then woven within the other steepers to create a strong and stable living fence. There are numerous regional styles across the country, borne from the agricultural practices in that region, but the Devon style is unique in that we have hedgebanks and lay our hedges flat on top. In other areas, the steepers are angled over at around 40 degrees and stabilised using stakes driven into the ground and woven through the material. To secure a Devon hedge, we use “Crooks”. These are like giant tent pegs harvested from the hedge and driven into the bank to secure the steepers. In my opinion, cutting is absolutely key when hedgelaying. The cuts need to be clean, with no splitting, and the hinge needs to be as thick as possible to keep the steeper alive but also to make the woven hedge strong. Another important skill is knowing how to keep all of your tools sharp, that way they will work hard for you and not you for the tool!
Hedgelaying is very much tied to the seasons and the landscape — when is the best time of year to lay hedges, and why?
Yes, hedgelaying is very much considered a job for the winter and there are 3 main reasons. The first is because the birds and the small mammals, like dormice, will have finished nesting and completed their breeding cycle. Working on the hedges during the winter leads to minimal disruption to the wildlife that use the hedges. Secondly, the sap doesn’t rise as readily as it does in the spring and summer. Hedgelaying cuts are quite drastic and the trees won't weep anywhere near as much as they would if worked on in the summer. The third reason is because the leaves are off. To be able to build a good solid hedge you need to be able to see what you're doing. I find hedgelaying in September really difficult because as you lower each steeper you just end up with mounds of foliage and you really can't see what you're doing and that makes it very difficult to build a solid structure.
What tools do you use in your work, and which ones are most important for doing a good job? Have any changed over the years?
I would say there are four main tools that I think are vitally important for hedgelaying. The first is having a chainsaw, that's because most of the commercial hedges that we deal with these days haven't been maintained for decades and so have large amounts of bigger timber within the hedgerow, potentially lots of scrub growth as well. So the chainsaw is vital for being able to work efficiently.
As well as this, I use a billhook, axe and wooden maul on a daily basis. I use a Yorkshire pattern billhook as I find it a very versatile hook. It's a double-handed hook meaning it has a longer handle, which gives you more leverage. It has blades on both sides, a flat blade on one side, for the steeping cut, and then a billed blade on the other side for trimming off branches and heels. Having a really good axe very important I have a 4 pound Gilpin axe which I use for anything from about 3 inches in diameter and greater. The axe is really useful in helping open that split on big steepers and working the hinge down as you're laying the steeper over, otherwise on those big steepers the split can easily run back up, which is not what you want. I also have a wooden maul. It's a piece of Holly that I cut from the hedge and this is what I use for knocking in my stakes and crooks. Other people use their axe, but I prefer to use a wooden maul.
The biggest change that I've experienced is battery chainsaws. I got mine about 6 years ago and I haven't looked back. Obviously, I still have a petrol chainsaw which does the main work, removing the bigger timber and the scrub but once we get laying I'm often using my little battery saw. They are perfect for hedging as you mainly use them in short bursts, and not having to wear ear defenders all day is a massive plus. I'll get through about two batteries in a day, it's surprising how much work they actually do once you start laying, as long as you can keep them sharp!
What’s the most challenging part of hedgelaying, and what keeps you passionate about it after all these years?
The most challenging part, I would say, is the state of the hedgerows. They are, generally, in poor condition as they've been flailed for far too long and, therefore, the material that we've got to deal with is very old, there's a lot more dead wood within the hedgerow, and it's a lot more difficult to steep over older wood than it is young wood. Also, the hedge banks that we work on down in Devon are becoming increasingly decrepit. Because the hedges haven't been laid in such a long time, the hedge banks have also been neglected.
What that means is they've often been run out by livestock and wildlife, like deer and rabbits, and they've often been run down so much that you've got lots of tree roots showing and in some places, the hedge bank is nearly non-existent. But actually, that challenge really excites me because that really challenges every skill that I have as a hedge layer. To be able to work out how I can manipulate the material that I've got in front of me, get it down and build a solid structure so that not only is it a solid, living hedge but also so that the soil can get mounded up behind the hedge that I've laid to rebuild that hedge bank and start that process of restoring these ancient boundaries for the future.
You’ve been competing in hedge laying matches since 2011 and have achieved remarkable success at national level. How has competing shaped your development as a craftsman, and what does it mean to you personally to earn titles such as Reserve Champion and multiple National Championships?
Competing has brought so many things to me as a hedge layer. Firstly, is that it drove me on to learn better techniques to become a better hedge layer and what that's meant in my commercial work is that I've been able to work on much more complex and technical hedges and achieve the result that I need to achieve, but also being able to do it in a timely fashion so I can earn a living from it. Competing has also brought me into a social world that I never knew existed. So when I was working out in the field on my own I knew there would be other people in the same situation as me, applying their craft, and then when we all come together at the end of the competition, you're conversing with other like-minded people. You'll only see these people in the winter, at the various competitions, and then in the summer we all go our separate ways. It’s always great going to that first competition in September and catching up.
My personal successes are a confirmation that I’m on the right road to fulfilling that promise I made to myself back in 2010, to be as good as those cutters that were there. And to have my name on that trophy and share the same space as the cutters that I looked up to when I first started, and still do, is a real honour. Some of these cutters are still competing and they're in their 70s and 80's and they're smashing down an amazing section, and here I am, almost 50 and I've got to work my socks off to be able to keep up with them. If I'm doing what they're doing when I'm their age, I’ll be over the moon!
Traditional hedgerows are important habitats — how does your work support wildlife and biodiversity?
Healthy hedgerows are fundamentally important in our landscape, not only for wildlife but also livestock and crops. Firstly, if you can imagine that a hedgerow is like linear woodland. There are some tall a trees, which we call the over-storey, so your Oak, Ash and Beech, for example, and they will appear periodically through a hedgerow. Then through the rest of the length, there will be the under-storey trees. These are the much shorter ones, for example Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Guelder Rose. What these do is they create the scrubby and dense layer in underneath and that provides wonderful habitat for birds and small mammals for nesting. The hedge also provides hibernation space for insects as well as small mammals throughout the winter. In the spring and summer the hedge then provides lots of fodder through the nectar and pollen and then, into the autumn with the fruits and the nuts coming through.
They are also vital habitats for all of our invertebrates, like our decomposers utilising the dead wood and you'll also have caterpillars that will be feeding on the leaves on the trees. So a healthy hedgerow is vital for all wildlife. But also vitally important for livestock, as well as crops, because a tall hedgerow will provide shelter in the winter and shade in the summer and as we move into a climate that is becoming increasingly volatile and more severe, having these shelter belts will become vital.
Hedgelaying is an ancient craft — what role do you think it plays in modern rural life? And do you see new generations taking it up?
A hedgelayer provides a sympathetic management service. We have very minimal impact on the land because we use hand tools as opposed to heavy machinery. By maintaining hedgerows sympathetically we are part of the regenerative style of farming, we are looking after the land with the view that the land will then provide for us. As a whole, I am seeing hedgelaying gaining in popularity. I teach hedgelaying once a month with the Blackdown Hills Hedge Association. On those training courses we often have 12 to 15 trainees, all of varying ages and motivations. Some have just bought a small paddock and are wanting to learn how to lay their own hedges, others are looking to come into cutting as a career change, they've been doing something else and have realised that working outside is much more positive for their own well-being. As relevant as ever I would say.
Is there a particular hedgelaying project or moment in your career that stands out as especially meaningful?
There have been quite a few highlights along the way but there are a couple that really stand out. The first time I won “Skills of the Hills” in 2022, that was 12 years after I set that goal to win that trophy. A project that I really enjoyed was a garden hedge. It was planted with Beech in a double staggered row so there were 2 lines of small Beech trees. The hedge had three straight sections with two right-angled corners in it. This hedge was in isolation, it wasn't part of a boundary or anything it was just within the garden and I needed to come up with a different way of laying this hedge. So rather than laying everything in the same direction, which is normal, I chose to go one way with the line of trees on side and then in the opposite direction on the other side of the hedge.
What that meant was I kind of laid the hedge in a cylindrical fashion but along a line. So it would go up one way but down the other and on the ends it would then wrap around the end stake and go back on itself. When you viewed the hedge from side on, it gave a lattice effect because you had the steepers going diagonally in one direction and then on the other side going diagonally in the opposite direction. It was a particularly satisfying project because not only did it fulfill my objective, which was to keep a full hedge all the way through, but also it made a bit of a feature within the garden.
We’re grateful to Steven for sharing his knowledge, experience and passion for a craft that continues to shape and protect our countryside. If you’d like to learn more about his work, explore his projects or enquire about commissions and courses, visit www.devonhedgelayer.co.uk or follow him on Instagram at @devon_hedge_layer, where he regularly shares the process and progress of his work in the field.