King Charles has long been a proponent of the ancient and artful craft of hedgelaying, and what’s good enough for royalty is good enough for us.
Accomplished local hedgelayer and woodsman, John Broom, led a day of workshops at our Gatehouse Farm site this week, passing on his great depth of experience to a new generation. John manages his own chestnut coppice near Sixpenny Handley, and was able to bring along a selection of modern and traditional rural tools to provide a taster session for young people on Dorset Wellbeing’s Pathways to Adulthood programme.
As was fitting, participants were taught the ‘Dorset style’ of hedgelaying, where the hedges are laid flat to the ground and the branches themselves are interwoven to hold the new structure together. From this dense base, new growth will then rise vertically and create an impassable barrier historically used to contain livestock and discourage interlopers…
Now that the country has entered the dormant season - where plants are no longer growing and birds aren’t actively nesting - time is of the essence. Between now and March, any young people with an interest in countryside crafts, or just getting outdoors to blow out some cobwebs, will have the opportunity to put their new skills to the test and see how far around the farm’s eight acres we can reach.
While the Pathways to Adulthood programme is aimed at young people aged 16+, Dorset Wellbeing caters for anybody from 8 to 18+, and nobody has to join a set pathway or commercial route to take part. Our work always starts as a therapeutic placement, tailored to the individual, and for those with an affinity for working in the great outdoors, we are becoming more equipped each day to provide a wider variety of ways for children and young people to engage with their natural environment.
And as the day drew to a close with a blazing sunset, it was time for a little tradition of our own - potatoes baked around an open fire in celebration of a day well spent.
