I wonder how many of us are aware that in the years after WW2 when food security was uppermost in people’s minds in the UK, almost 500,000 km of ancient centuries-old hedgerows were grubbed up by farmers, encouraged by government subsidies to increase food production. The new system of intensive farming handily used synthetic fertilisers and pesticides from re-purposed weapons factories, and with technological advances, farm machinery became “bigger and better” but meant that larger more open fields were required to accommodate the new machinery.

Food production certainly did increase, but by the 1960s alarm bells were ringing amongst some environmentalists, notably Rachel Carson who, in her 1962 book Silent Spring, called out the use of the pesticide DDT and its devastating effect on wildlife. She was vilified by the large companies who produced these chemicals and the cereal varieties which grew well with the application of these products. But, unfortunately, what she predicted came to pass and many studies show that insect populations were decimated, and that this has contributed to a huge decline in the numbers of farmland birds, too.

In 1969 following a study which estimated hedgerow loss at 10,000 miles a year, CPRE  (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) called for ‘hedgerow preservation orders’ with special protection for the most species-rich and therefore ancient hedges. The campaign called for a halt to their destruction for ecological reasons, pointing to the effects on ‘many species of birds, animals, insects, wild flowers, and plants’. Many environmental organisations took up the call for hedgerow protection and the 1970s saw a surge in interest in hedgerows amongst researchers.

In 1974, grants for hedge removal to facilitate field amalgamation were officially discontinued but, unfortunately, the practice still continued. In 1980, CPRE began a campaign to end grants to encourage intensive food production at the expense of the environment. It had emerged that, during the previous 12 months, UK farmers were paid £171 million to remove landscape features including hedgerows. In 1985 the government introduced new grants that actively paid farmers up to 60% to provide, replace, or improve hedges rather than remove them. But it wasn’t until 1990 that the government’s first-ever Environment White Paper finally accepted that there was a case for statutory hedgerow protection.