First and Last – Our Living Working Landscape
Penwith Hedges
Partners
Cornwall Wildlife Trust
Outputs
Surveying, recording and ongoing monitoring of Cornish hedges.
Practical hedging support by training of volunteer hedgers.
Description
Keow Pennwydh or Penwith Hedges aims to raise and develop awareness of the heritage value of Cornish hedges in the Penwith landscape, building relationships within and between communities, and training volunteers and farmers in the practice of Cornish hedging so that heritage, people, farm businesses and communities can benefit. This will be achieved through the following activities:
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Provision of training to farmers and community volunteers to monitor the condition, restore and repair Cornish hedges. Farmers and experienced professional Cornish hedgers will then share their skills to volunteers through farmer-led training tasks and project-funded training sessions. If you are interested in receiving free training on Cornish hedging do please get in touch or register as a volunteer.
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Raising awareness within both farming and and the local community of the heritage and conservation value of Cornish hedges through the delivery of workshops, events and training.
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Physical restoration of key areas of hedge through capital grants and / or stewardship applications, training and empowering farmers to maintain and manage Cornish hedges on their holdings and supporting farmers to maintain hedges through volunteer task days.
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Targeted action using hedge condition surveys to identify stretches and patches of Cornish hedge or gateways that could be repaired or restored to benefit not only the landscape quality of Penwith, but also small farm businesses.
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Volunteer and community engagement is an important part but working with the farming community is key to our delivery. Following bespoke hedge training sessions, the farming community will be supported and encouraged to lead volunteer ‘hedging’ training days on their land to repair and restore hedges, cascading their skills to volunteers within the community. The community and volunteers will benefit from learning new skills and building relationships with those who live and work on the land, and heritage features will be repaired and preserved. The physical nature of the tasks will contribute to the health and well-being of volunteers and promoted as a ‘green gym’ activity.
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Volunteer and community groups will be encouraged to undertake hedge surveys in their ‘patch’ or Parish with background information and training. Information gathered from surveys will be used to identify stretches or patches of Cornish hedges and gateways that would benefit from repair. The recruitment of community volunteers for this work will stem from events and workshops run through the project and volunteer engagement across the PLP scheme, coordinated through the volunteer programme
The project will be delivered across the Penwith Landscape Partnership area (see here for a map) with a priority on Cornish hedges identified as in need of repair or restoration. This project is being led by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, with PLP staff support Nick Taylor, our Penwith Hedges officer and Ecologist, plus support from Phil Pengelly, our Farm Environment Officer. Volunteer hedging sessions will be led by Richie Smith, our Practical Tasks Officer. If you have any questions regarding the project or are interested in receiving hedging training please email Nick at nick.taylor@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk
If you are a farmer in Penwith, you can find more information on our Farming and Wildlife pages.
