← All guides · Reduction & renovation · Updated August 2026

How to lay a hedge the South of England way: tools, steps and nesting-season timing for CT10.

Hedge laying is the traditional craft that turns a gappy, leaning or outgrown native hedgerow into a dense, stock-proof living barrier. The South of England style, which is the technique used in Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex, involves partially cutting each stem and bending it to a low angle so it regrows from the base rather than being lost to a round of hard pruning. For hawthorn, blackthorn and mixed native hedges on the St Peter's and Reading Street rural fringe of CT10, it is often the correct intervention: better for the hedge's long-term structure and significantly better for the wildlife that depends on it than a conventional renovation cut.

Steps

Step 1: Decide whether the hedge is a laying candidate

Hedge laying works with native country species: hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), hazel (Corylus avellana), field maple (Acer campestre), dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) and guelder rose (Viburnum opulus). Mixed native hedges combining two or more of these are ideal laying candidates. The method does not work with garden ornamental species (privet, laurel, escallonia) or conifers: the South of England style is specifically a technique for the native rural hedgerows of the Kent countryside, not for the formal clipped hedges of Broadstairs terrace gardens.

The ideal candidate has stems between roughly 3cm and 12cm in diameter at the point where the laying cut will be made, approximately 30cm above ground. Stems thinner than 3cm tend to snap when bent; stems over 12-15cm in diameter require a chainsaw to make the laying cut cleanly and are harder to bend without tearing the tongue. A hedge that has been cut hard back to old wood repeatedly and has never been laid, but still carries vigorous multi-stemmed growth from the base, is the classic case. If the base is predominantly dead or there are large gaps at ground level with no live stems, renovation by cutting and replanting is a better fit than laying.

Step 2: Choose the right month and check nesting law

The working window for hedge laying is November to February. November and December are the most productive months: the leaves are off deciduous species (making the stems easy to see and work among), the ground is not yet frozen solid, and the sap is fully dormant so freshly laid pleachers carry low moisture stress through their first winter. January and February are viable but cold ground can slow stake-driving and ice on the cut surfaces can cause problems in hard frosts.

Avoid starting any hedge laying work before 1 September if there is any possibility of active nests remaining in the hedge. A hedgelaying job involves stripping out brash, clearing the base, and bending the main stems: it is a significant disturbance of the hedge interior, which is a very different order of intervention from a surface trim.

Step 3: Gather the tools

The minimum kit for a South of England style laying job:

• Kent pattern billhook. The Kent billhook has a deeper, heavier blade than the Berkshire or Midlands versions, with a short nose that is well suited to working close to the ground. A good billhook is the main cutting tool for stems up to about 6cm in diameter.
• Pruning saw or Japanese pull-saw. For stems over 6cm that the billhook cannot cut cleanly in a single stroke. A folding Japanese pull-saw works well in tight spaces between stems.
• Bow saw or chainsaw. For clearing heavy brash and any stools too large to billhook. A chainsaw speeds the clearing phase significantly on a long hedge run.
• Wooden mallet or post-driving maul. For driving hazel stakes. A standard 2.5kg lump hammer works if a mallet is not available.
• Hazel stakes. Straight, pointed, 1.5-1.8m long, approximately 4-6cm in diameter at the base. Allow one stake per 45cm run of hedge. Coppiced hazel from a local woodland supplier is the traditional source; in Kent, hazel coppice is still managed by several woodland owners and Wildlife Trust sites.
• Hazel binders. Flexible hazel whips, 2-3m long and 2-4cm in diameter, from first or second year coppice growth. Allow roughly 2-3 binder lengths per metre of hedge run. Birch, ash and willow whips work as binders if hazel is not available.
• Stout gloves and eye protection. Hawthorn and blackthorn spines cause deep puncture wounds. A face shield is advisable when clearing the base of a mature hawthorn hedge.

Step 4: Clear the base of the hedge

Before laying a single stem, clear the bottom 60-80cm of the hedge from both faces. Remove bramble roots, ivy stems pulled away from the hedge structure, elder suckers, and any dead or diseased wood. Cut out any stems that are too large to lay (over 12-15cm diameter at the laying point) by taking them to the base as stools: these will coppice and regrow as new stems in future years. Remove crossing stems and anything growing horizontally within the base of the hedge that will obstruct the laying operation.

This clearing phase is consistently the most labour-intensive part of a hedge laying job and the most underestimated. On an overgrown 20-metre run that has not been managed for more than ten years, the base clearing can take an experienced hedgelayer three to four hours before the first pleacher is cut. Budget for it properly: rushing the clearing to get to the laying is the mistake that makes the finished hedge look rough.

Step 5: Select and cut the pleachers

The stems you lay are called pleachers (sometimes written pleashes). Working along the hedge from one end, identify the strongest, most upright stems at intervals of roughly 15-30cm: these become the pleachers that form the structural skeleton of the laid hedge. Stems growing at awkward angles, or thin subsidiary stems between the main pleachers, are cut out at the base or at a convenient fork to clean the line and give you room to work.

Make the laying cut on each pleacher approximately 30cm above ground level. Hold the billhook with the cut face angled upward on the low side of the stem and cut into the wood steadily, aiming to go about two-thirds of the way through. The remaining one-third of the cross-section, the tongue of bark and sapwood on the uphill or outward-facing side, stays intact. That tongue is the living hinge: it carries water and nutrients from the roots up into the laid stem and keeps the pleacher alive through the following growing seasons. A clean, diagonal cut reduces the risk of the tongue tearing when the stem is bent. A crushing or splintered cut risks tearing the tongue, which kills the pleacher.

Step 6: Bend and lay the pleachers

Once the laying cut is made, bend the pleacher slowly away from you and downward, letting the tongue flex rather than fold sharply. The target angle in the South of England style is 30-45 degrees from horizontal: low enough that the base produces dense regrowth, high enough that successive pleachers do not stack over each other and shade out the growth underneath. In the South of England style, all the pleachers are laid in one direction: the conventional choice on level ground is away from the direction of prevailing wind, or uphill on a slope so the hedge funnels moisture toward the root zone rather than away from it.

The side branches (the brash) are folded down with the pleacher and left in place. They fill the base of the hedge, protect the cut stumps from deer and rabbit browsing, and provide the structure through which new shoots grow as the hedge thickens. Do not strip the brash away: it is part of what makes a laid hedge stock-proof within the first growing season.

Step 7: Drive the stakes and weave the binders

Once 2-3 metres of pleachers are laid, drive hazel stakes vertically into the centre line of the hedge at 45cm (18 inch) intervals using the mallet. Stakes should be driven to a depth that leaves 1.5-1.8m standing above ground before trimming. Drive them at a slight forward lean if the ground is soft to resist the outward pressure of the laid pleachers.

Weave the hazel binders between the stakes in a continuous length, starting at the lower end of the section and working upward. Tuck the leading end of each binder behind the first stake it passes, then weave it alternately in front of and behind subsequent stakes, keeping the binder as level and tight as you can. When a binder runs out, wedge the end behind the nearest stake and start the next one, overlapping by at least one stake-span. The finished line of binders locks the pleachers against the stakes and prevents the laid stems from lifting or shifting as the hedge grows.

Once the binders are woven, trim the tops of the stakes level using loppers or a saw. The South of England style target height for the finished hedge is approximately 1.2m (4ft): stakes are trimmed to this height so the top of the bound structure presents a consistent line. The hedge will grow above this level by the end of the first growing season, but the stake-and-binder structure holds the base firm while that new growth establishes.

Step 8: First-year aftercare

Do not cut the new growth in year one. The shoots emerging from the cut stumps of the pleachers, and from the base of the hedge on both faces, are the new structure. Trimming them before they are at least 30-40cm long removes the growth the hedge needs to establish its density. Leave the first growing season entirely alone except for pulling out any bramble or ivy that re-establishes in the base.

Apply a balanced granular fertiliser (a general-purpose 7-7-7 or similar) along the root zone on both faces of the hedge in March, at 60-70g per square metre. On Thanet chalk, which drains quickly and holds very little moisture in the root zone, water during any dry spell of more than a fortnight in April to June of the first season: newly laid pleachers have a reduced effective root system and respond worse to moisture stress than an uncut hedge. A bark mulch 8-10cm deep along both faces of the base reduces moisture loss and suppresses competing grass and weeds.

From the second year onward, the top growth is trimmed back once annually in August or September to keep the new shoots within the profile of the laid structure. The hedge typically reaches its finished density, with a solid bank of new growth visible from both faces, by the end of year two or three.

South of England style vs other styles

The UK has more than thirty regional hedge laying styles, each evolved for local species, soil and livestock conditions. The South of England style (used in Kent, Surrey, East and West Sussex) differs from the Midlands style in one important structural detail: the pleachers are laid in a single direction rather than alternating, and the stakes run in a single central line with binders woven along the top. The Midlands style uses two parallel rows of stakes and creates a double-brush structure. The South of England style produces a narrower, tidier hedge at a lower finished height: it is the appropriate style for Kent and the reference for what you will see demonstrated by the South of England Hedge Laying Society, whose members run training courses and competitions throughout the county.

Wildlife value of a laid hedge in CT10

A laid hedge provides significantly better wildlife habitat than a clipped ornamental hedge of the same species mix. The brash packed at the base, the low irregular stem structure, and the regrowth from the base provide nesting cover for wrens, dunnocks, yellowhammers and whitethroats, as well as foraging habitat for hedgehogs and shelter for invertebrates through the winter. The Kent Wildlife Trust notes hedgelaying specifically as a land management technique that improves hedgerow condition for wildlife, and it is used as a management tool on hedges adjacent to SSSI-designated land in Thanet and the wider Kent countryside. For gardens on the rural fringe of CT10, particularly in the Reading Street area where properties back onto or adjoin countryside, a laid hawthorn or blackthorn hedge is a meaningful contribution to the local hedgerow network.

Hedge laying and the conservation-area check

If a hedge sits inside one of Broadstairs' three conservation areas (Broadstairs CA, St Peter's CA or Reading Street CA), and any of the stems being cut and laid have reached 75mm in diameter at 1.5m above ground level, those stems may be protected as trees under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The six-week prior notification to Thanet District Council would apply before any works. The laying cut itself is made at 30cm above ground, well below the 1.5m measurement point, and the stems being cut are generally below the 75mm diameter threshold at that height. But for an old, thick-stemmed hedge with large stools, it is worth measuring the main stems at 1.5m before assuming the work is automatically exempt. See the conservation areas guide for the 75mm rule and the s.211 notification process.

Sources: Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 211; National Hedgelaying Society, "Hedgelaying Styles" (hedgelaying.org.uk); South of England Hedge Laying Society (registered charity 1046124), training and demonstrations in Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey; Hedgelink, "How to Traditional Hedge Laying in the South of England Style" (hedgelink.org.uk, primary video reference, youtube.com/watch?v=iGncS_lojlI; direct YouTube egress blocked from the generation environment, source verification via web-search cross-reference and channel-authority heuristic per INGESTION.md); Woodlands.co.uk, "How to Lay a Hedge"; Gardens Illustrated, "How to Lay a Hedge"; Kent Wildlife Trust, "The art of hedgelaying and why wildlife depends on hedges" (kentwildlifetrust.org.uk); Hedges and Hurdles, "Traditional Hedgelaying Tools" (hedgesandhurdles.com).