Last Saturday afternoon we had the pleasure of spending the afternoon down at Dunsbury Farm near Brook.
We were, of course, attending the annual Hedgelaying Competition which had been organised by the Isle of Wight Hedgerow Group.
This is the third year that we’ve attended and each time it seems to grow in popularity and interest.
There was an amazing turnout of competitors with the end result being a fantastic looking hedge running down the lane to Dunsbury Farm.
The competition this year was incredibly close with just one and a half points between 1st and 3rd place in the Open Class.
Paul Davis, who works as National Trust Warden over in West Wight, took first place in the Open (as he did in 2008) and we caught up with him after the prize giving.
With the points so close this year, Paul told us that he was amazed that he had taken first place, thinking it would have been his colleague Sean Adams holding the cup at the awards ceremony.
Paul explained that he and Sean had been taught the craft of hedgelaying by former hedgelaying champion the late Len Lathwell. Apparently Len had worked on projects such as the bouncing bomb who worked on the bouncing bomb when with Barnes Wallis so generally approached hedgelaying with a great deal of precision.
Under the tuition of Len, Paul has been laying hedges for some 17 years now and we’re sure to see him once again at next years Annual Hedgelaying Competition.
Congratulations also to friend of VentnorBlog, Tom Murphy of Living Landscapes for taking the very respectable third place.
More to come
Congratulations to Paul and everyone else who took part in the competition.
More photos (including before and after shots) and podcasts (with other winners) to follow in due course. [audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/paul-davies-hedgelaying-winner-09.mp3]
Read the full report on the official Isle of Wight Hedgerow Group Web site
