Hedges

Complete your New Naturalist collection with Harper Collins's facsimile versions, which are printed on demand. Hedges was first published in 1974.

Though man-made, hedges are in effect long thin strips of woodland, a network across Britain of hidden pathways and refuge for much of our native wildlife. Secrecy and cover: hence surely the appeal of hedges even for children. But the interest of hedges lies also in their history – which is also that of our post-Bronze Age landscape and rural society – and in their central importance to the ecology of the British countryside.

Drs Hooper, Pollard and Moore are colleagues at the Monks Wood Experimental Station of the Natural Environment Research Council. They have together written a succinct and readable book covering all aspects of hedgerows in Britain: their purpose and history, from the earliest references in Caesar's 'Gallic Wars' to the present day; the methods of dating hedges recently developed by Dr Hooper; their flora, woody and herbaceous, and its development; their bird, mammal, reptile and invertebrate life; and a clear account of the role of hedges in the British countryside today – their cost to the farmer both in land and trouble and their value to him.

Much of what is in this book has never been explained to the general reader; some of it has not been published at all. This is one of those New Naturalist volumes with an interest and importance for almost anyone who cares about the past and future of the British landscape.