Hi, I'm a horticultural student looking for a few Cornish farmers to participate in an online survey about hedgerows

[Simi]

Hi everyone,

My name is Simi and I'm studying a Horticulture and Plant science Bsc at Eden Project Learning in Cornwall. For my coursework, I'm looking into Cornish farmers management practices and views on hedgerows. I think farmers are under-represented and experiential knowledge is under-valued within science and industry and it is important to understand what farmers need and think in order to effect long lasting meaningful change.

The study I'm conducting is titled Cornish farmers' perceptions and management of hedgerows and aims to explore the relationship between perception and management practices regarding hedgerows.

I would be really interested to hear your views and if you would like to share them with me there is a link to my survey below. It should take 10-20 minutes dependent on how much you want to tell me and will be completely anonymous.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TJKZ86D please copy and paste into your browser to access

Thank you for your time!
Simi

 

[Martyn]

Have completed it, but there are several mistakes in it like your age brackets don't add up! Also don't under what you are try to achieve with the way some of the questions are written.

 

[Simi]

oh no I'll check the ages

 

[Simi]

Thank you for pointing that out! There is now a 35-44 age range, I read through it so many times and it was proof read by two people!

 

[Simi]

Have completed it, but there are several mistakes in it like your age brackets don't add up! Also don't under what you are try to achieve with the way some of the questions are written.

Hi everyone,

My name is Simi and I'm studying a Horticulture and Plant science Bsc at Eden Project Learning in Cornwall. For my coursework, I'm looking into Cornish farmers management practices and views on hedgerows. I think farmers are under-represented and experiential knowledge is under-valued within science and industry and it is important to understand what farmers need and think in order to effect long lasting meaningful change.

The study I'm conducting is titled Cornish farmers' perceptions and management of hedgerows and aims to explore the relationship between perception and management practices regarding hedgerows.

I would be really interested to hear your views and if you would like to share them with me there is a link to my survey below. It should take 10-20 minutes dependent on how much you want to tell me and will be completely anonymous.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TJKZ86D please copy and paste into your browser to access

Thank you for your time!
Simi

Many apologies everyone I missed an age range out on the survey, please use the link below for the updated version if you would like to participate. Also my email can be found on the survey welcome page, feel free to message me if you have any questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TJKZ86D please copy and paste into your browser to access

 

[Simi]

To the person who spent over an hour today meticulously filling out my survey today and providing a wealth of insights - thank you

 

[Treg]

Done . Please remember there are many different types of Cornish hedge .
The hedges down St Ives are very different to hedges around camborne / Redruth and hedges around St Austell / mid Cornwall are very different to North Cornwall.
Natural England looked at our hedges once as we'd put in a claim for maintaining them as Cornish hedges and they said they weren't Cornish hedges as they had stone in so were stone faced banks !!! Pointed out that down Penwith Cornish hedges are pure stone whereas some parts of mid Cornwall they can be earth banks, ours tend to be a mixture of both, they got very confused.
If it's in Cornwall & built by a Cornish person it must be a Cornish hedge.
Have you checked out Will Colmans Cornish hedges on Bodmin moor ? Think he's inviting people from different areas of Cornwall to build bits of his monument so it represents the whole of Cornwall, he also says it will take 4000years to complete.

 

[Simi]

I'm really overwhelmed by the length of time and effort people are putting in to my survey, thank you so much! I'm also intrigued by cuckoo corner, I may have to try and find it.

 

[Simi]

Done . Please remember there are many different types of Cornish hedge .
The hedges down St Ives are very different to hedges around camborne / Redruth and hedges around St Austell / mid Cornwall are very different to North Cornwall.
Natural England looked at our hedges once as we'd put in a claim for maintaining them as Cornish hedges and they said they weren't Cornish hedges as they had stone in so were stone faced banks !!! Pointed out that down Penwith Cornish hedges are pure stone whereas some parts of mid Cornwall they can be earth banks, ours tend to be a mixture of both, they got very confused.
If it's in Cornwall & built by a Cornish person it must be a Cornish hedge.
Have you checked out Will Colmans Cornish hedges on Bodmin moor ? Think he's inviting people from different areas of Cornwall to build bits of his monument so it represents the whole of Cornwall, he also says it will take 4000years to complete.

Yes I thought strictly speaking there was only one type of Cornish hedge! - essentially an earthen bank surrounded by stone with plants on top (excuse the crude description). So I've already learnt something new. I'm also kind of shocked at Natural England, was that recently?

I copied this form a Natural England publication:

publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/4990678488580096

A hedgerow is defined as any boundary line of trees or shrubs over 20m long and less than 5m wide, and where any gaps between the trees or shrub species are less that 20m wide (Bickmore, 2002). Any bank, wall, ditch or tree within 2m of the centre of the hedgerow is considered to be part of the hedgerow habitat, as is the herbaceous vegetation within 2m of the centre of the hedgerow.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but aren't walls normally made of stone?

I just had a look at Will Colman Cornish hedge project, it looks amazing! plus my daughter loves Bodmin moor so we'll definitely be checking that out- thanks!

 

[Treg]

Yes I thought strictly speaking there was only one type of Cornish hedge! - essentially an earthen bank surrounded by stone with plants on top (excuse the crude description). So I've already learnt something new. I'm also kind of shocked at Natural England, was that recently?

I copied this form a Natural England publication:

publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/4990678488580096

A hedgerow is defined as any boundary line of trees or shrubs over 20m long and less than 5m wide, and where any gaps between the trees or shrub species are less that 20m wide (Bickmore, 2002). Any bank, wall, ditch or tree within 2m of the centre of the hedgerow is considered to be part of the hedgerow habitat, as is the herbaceous vegetation within 2m of the centre of the hedgerow.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but aren't walls normally made of stone?

I just had a look at Will Colman Cornish hedge project, it looks amazing! plus my daughter loves Bodmin moor so we'll definitely be checking that out- thanks!

Ah yes that's the definition of a hedgerow , at the time (10 yrs ago) although they wanted to protect Cornish hedges (killas) they didn't have a proper definition of one.
I think now they say Cornish hedges need protecting but you claim on the different types of hedgerow you have ( stone fronted earth bank etc ) rather than just putting Cornish hedge. So really their just protecting Hedgerows rather than a " Cornish hedge" hopefully Will Colmans project & yours will help educate the powers that be

 

[Treg]

I'm really overwhelmed by the length of time and effort people are putting in to my survey, thank you so much! I'm also intrigued by cuckoo corner, I may have to try and find it.

Ah although it's a well known folklore story only a small number of people know where it is.