This mysterious black and white photo of a hedge has a story…..
And we’ll shed a bit of light on that further down the page.
Here at CREST, we feel so privileged to meet and work with people who have had a passion for Cornish hedging for decades and who knew the hedgers who came before them, stretching back into the mists of time. We also work with and train the next generation of Cornish hedgers, who will be carrying into the future not just the precious skills of the craft, but also the stories and histories that go with them.
We are appealing to everyone who knows a good hedging story to share it with us so we can pass it on and incorporate the Cornish hedge community into what we do. We hope to keep the characters, oral traditions and the fun of Cornish hedges passing on through our training, events and activities. We even have a special interactive hedge board to engage children in the folklore, history and ecology of hedges. It includes a puppet show, thanks to a very funny story of one of our hedgers who temporarily built his rabbit-chasing terrier into the hedge by accident! The dog was retrieved unharmed.
We are very interested in anything you’ve found in a Cornish hedge, we have already heard of scores of Victorian cider bottles (imagine the hedgers drinking and working!), Greenstone rubbing stones from the Neolithic period and, of course, TREASURE!
Please contact us by crest[at]cornwallheritagetrust.org or by our social media, or use our website contact form. We’re happy to receive stories in writing, over a phone call or by interpretive dance, just let us know.
Now… back to that photo….
At the very start of the CREST project, our hedgers were working with trainees on a remote farm, right in the heart of West Penwith. As they worked, they spotted a figure approaching from a distance. As he got closer, they saw that it was a man in his senior years walking purposely towards the training site. Our trainers pondered plenty of scenarios that might bring someone marching over, but they never would have guessed what it turned out to be.
As everyone welcomed the enigmatic man to the hedge, assuming him to be a curious hiker, he reached into his pocket and produced the photo that you can see above. As our astonished hedgers admired the photo, he introduced himself as Roger Jenkin, and the hedge in the picture as one of his Competition winning hedges.
Hedging competitions used to be a regular feature of the craft. The Duchy’s most competent hedgers would come together to build the best hedge they could in just one day. Experts and veterans of the craft would judge them on quality, style and speed. Roger said that the one in the photo was started at breakfast and finished by mid afternoon! Jaw dropping speed and quality. Needless to say, this was a winner. In November 1964, Roger, aged 20, took part in his first hedging competition and went on to win a further three! He is a champion of Cornish hedging and, having heard about our project on the radio, he came to find us to share with us a little bit of our craft’s past. We plan to do an article showing the man himself, his remarkable trophy collection and delve into his experiences as a hedger at hedging competitions. Who knows, maybe we will run a hedging competition one day!
His generosity in sharing his story with us and knowing that we would value it inspired us to ask everyone we can, our trainers, our hedging friends, our trainees, and others who have known or loved Cornish hedging to help us build up the community of hedging, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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