Hedges and dry stone walls are the backbone of the English countryside. Many are thousands of years old and support fantastically rich flora and fauna. Hedges are a priority habitat for South Gloucestershire and the whole of the UK. The project
The Field Boundaries Project was a three-year project ending in 2005 funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in partnership with South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset councils.
The project engaged local people from a wide range of backgrounds in discovering and recording their dry stone walls and hedgerows. Thousands of environmental and historical records were collected, making this one of the biggest projects of its kind in Europe. The details are being recorded on a map-based information system and the information will be available to planners, developers and residents.
Spin-off projects
Spin-off projects include:
- A CD-Rom suitable for primary schools
- A hedgerow trail at Pensford and Lansdown
- A historical booklet – call for your free copy
Heritage Lottery Funding for this project ended in July 2005. South Gloucestershire Environment Body (SGEB) has very kindly provided funding to allow the hedgerow surveys to continue.
In 2006/7 BRERC (Bristol Regional Environmental Record Centre) got funding from the Cotswold Sustainability Fund to complete the survey and data analysis for all hedgerows in five of the Cotswold parishes of South Gloucestershire. The data showed how rich in wildlife and heritage these areas are and parish maps were presented to parish councillors at a celebration event in Marshfield.
All the hedgerow data is proving invaluable for the Batscapes project and for the dormouse project – Dormice on Your Doorstep! Both these projects aim to record and protect these very rare creatures, which rely on field boundaries for food and shelter.
The data also highlight the vital wildlife corridors that hedgerows and walls provide in the landscape.