There are several ways that you can engage with CREST as a volunteer, whether you’re taking a picture of your nearest Cornish hedge, surveying a local farm or want to get hands on with a conservation charity, we can sign-post you in the right direction.
Funded by Cornwall AONB’s Farming in Protected Landscapes, part of our project, is to help some of the farms in the protected landscape of Penwith (and some beyond) to survey their hedges and identify those most in need of repair. We need volunteers who love to be outside and would be interested in joining us on areas of the land that you may not normally be able to access.
We use a specially developed survey called the Hedge Importance Test to assess the hedges. These surveys will help us give our Cornish hedging trainees and volunteers work experience on some of our beautiful, endangered hedges and keep them standing for generations to come.
CONTACT US TO GET INVOLVED
We are connected to a number of organisations in Cornwall who do voluntary repair of Cornish hedges in our publicly accessible wildlife and heritage sites. We train volunteers, rangers and volunteer leaders in Cornish hedging to ensure that they have the skills to repair the hedges using the traditional, regional techniques to keep the hedges distinct to their location and standing for centuries to come.
If you’re interested in training for voluntary Cornish hedge repair, please get in touch.
ENQUIRE NOW
If you have Cornish hedges in your local area, we’d love to see them. Part of protecting the distinct local heritage of Cornwall is to ensure that the regional styles of Cornish hedging are acknowledged and taught as part of our training. This is something that residents and visitors of Cornwall can help with by recording the hedges that they know or find.
Our friends at Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Historic Environment Record have developed an easy way to log your hedges online; The Great Cornish Hedge Survey! It’s easy to use, just take a photo of your hedge and upload it to the right spot on the map. You can add a description or details to your hedge. We’d like to invite everyone to tell any Cornish hedge anecdotes, folklore and we’re really interested to know if you’ve ever found anything unusual in a Cornish hedge! Every hedge uploaded will support the protection of local heritage and its variety across the different parts of the Duchy.
