Hedge Planting and Laying Rickhurst Rews

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The landowner applied for a grant of £9,817.39 to carry out 245m of hedge planting to connect with previously funded hedge planting.  In addition, the landowner carried out 195m of hedge laying having learnt how to do this rural skill at recent Surrey Wildlife Trust volunteering days.

Over the last three years, Stuart Pearson has taken on the challenge of restoring his 1.2km hedgerow boundary on the outskirts of Dunsfold.  He successfully applied to the Surrey Hills Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) grant programme for funding to tackle the daunting task of bringing his boundaries back into active management.  After a three year programme of activity he will have planted 825m of native hedges and also carried out over 300m of hedge-laying, a specialist skill which he learnt from training as part of collaboration with other landowners.

Stuart said “While we were certainly amateurs, we were nonetheless very enthusiastic to become beneficial custodians of our land.  FiPL massively accelerated our journey when we joined the Greenscape facilitation group which gave us a community, training and a degree of confidence. Since then, we have had visits from the local tree officer, Forestry Commission, Surrey Bat Group, the Botanical Society and Surrey Wildlife Trust. We have made some great friends and contacts who we often call on for expertise or help.  We met Paul Matthews from Hedges and Hurdles,  a Surrey Hills Enterprises business, whose training and encouragement was instrumental in enabling us to lay a rather overgrown hedge with the unbelievable help of Grant Harris, a fearless volunteer!

Without FiPL this would never have happened.  Jenna was wonderful with her encouragement and funding help and I still cannot believe that Christa manages to get so many volunteers to come and help us. In the week before Christmas, fuelled by mince pies and mulled wine, the Surrey Hills volunteers organised and managed by Christa planted 240m in a morning.

We never thought, and still cannot believe that we could have already made so much progress. It is lovely to see that through Surrey Hills support and the hard work of their volunteers, we are already making such an impact on the ecology with birds nesting in the hedge, wildflowers appearing where there is now light into the woodland edge.”

Project summary

Total grant awarded £9,817.39
Total cost of project: £9,187.39
Project start date: 07/08/2023
Project end date: 07/03/2024
Location Dunsfold