Hedgerows are an important habitat for both plants and wildlife. Here in the Yorkshire South Pennines we tend to have dry stone walls (also an important habitat but for different wildlife), but there are hedges too; many originally planted as ‘quick hedges’.

The Park has several hedges, the big one along Kelcliffe Lane, planted in the early 20th century from hawthorn: it now has a mix of species, including some cyclamen in Autumn. FoPP has added to the species mix via the Jubilee and Queens Green canopy projects.

The other hedges are around the two copses; planted in the 1950’s, again from hawthorn. These are less species rich, but surveying their progress in building up a range of plants is important.

CPRE, the countryside charity are asking people to survey a section of local hedgerow in May, so they can gauge the health of British hedgerows nationally. They ask volunteers to go out and survey a small length of hedgerow near them, and send in the responses. Their website below provides the tools you will need.

This is an excellent scheme and would be very helpful to better understand the hedges in the Park. We’d encourage people to take part. If you do, would you please also share the survey results with us on parkinsonspark@gmail.com. Maybe you could combine this with a Coronation picnic.

Full details below

There is more about the history of the Park’s habitats and hedgerows in our Story of The Guiseley Jubilee Oak – copies will be available at events or email us on the above email.