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Lynsted Community Millennium Hedge, Cambridge Lane.
Some notes on the traditional uses of the species in the Hedge.
Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa.
A very effective hedging plant for retaining stock animals. The wood is used for walking and riding sticks. The fruit (sloe) is used to make sloe gin.
Broom, Cytisus scoparius.
The long, whippy, thornless stems were popular in the making of brooms (hence the name). It was occasionally used for basket making and thatching.
The earlier Latin name, Planta genista, described the emblem of the Plantagenet kings of England and France. The flowers and shoot tips were used in salads, and in herbal remedies. The plant is said to have magical properties (witches rode through the air on broomsticks).
Dog rose, Rosa canina.
These were sometimes used as grafting stock for cultivated garden roses. The rose is the national flower of England.
Dogwood, Cornus sanguinea.
The name is possibly derived from ‘dag’, a butcher’s skewer. The wood was used for such.
Field maple, Acer campestre.
The tough, fine grained wood is used for high quality carved or turned work, musical instruments etc. Maple-wood harps were used by the Saxons. The mediaeval ‘mazer’ drinking bowls were often made of maple.
Gorse, Ulex europaeus.
The green shoots of ‘furze’ were used as horse and cattle fodder, often after crushing in a gorse mill. The woodier parts were used for fuel, especially for baker’s ovens. Other uses include chimney brushes and a source of colouring for Easter eggs.
Hazel, Corylus avellana.
Hazel poles and shoots were, and still are, used in wattle hurdles. They were used in the ‘wattle-and –daub’ structure of timber-framed house walls. The straight-splitting flexibility of the stems is exploited in the fashioning of thatching pegs. Hazel was also used for ‘tally sticks’: pieces of wood on which business transactions were recorded as notches. The stick was then split. Each participant kept his half as a record of the deal.
Hazel is a producer of valuable nuts. The plant has been cultivated for its nuts since ancient times. ‘Cobnuts’ are a typical Kentish crop.
Holly, Ilex aquifolium.
Surprisingly, considering its prickles, holly was used as a winter cattle feed in the past. It is rich in nutrients. The holly provides valuable shelter for stock. The wood was used for the handles of horse whips by ploughmen (holly was believed to have magical powers over horses). Young hollies were drawn through chimneys to clean them.
Holly trees are regarded as constant and distinct features in the landscape, at all times of year. They were used to mark the positions of stiles, footpaths and boundaries. See the Lynsted with Kingsdown Society’s ‘Marking the Bounds’ project.
It is regarded as bad luck to cut down a holly tree, although its branches are traditionally used for Christmas decoration.
Spindle, Euonymus europaeus.
The young shoots of this shrub were traditionally used, before the invention of the spinning wheel, as spindles. These were long, straight stems around which raw wool could be wound. The stems were ideal, being straight, heavy and easy to rotate between the fingers.
The hard, yellow wood was used for skewers, knitting needles and pegs (see Dogwood, above).
The berries were used as a purgative.
Ash, Fraxinus excelsior
Often coppiced (cut down on a ten-year rotation), the resulting poles were used for a range of products, from fork-handles to fire wood. It is resilient wood, often used for walking sticks, billiard cues, hockey sticks etc. It is also used to make lobster pots.
English oak, Quercus robur.
Pedunculate oak. The oak is very long-lived and often used as a land-mark.
The timber was used for the building of timber-framed houses, and ships. The oak carries many ‘passengers’: a wide range of, fungi, insects, birds etc.
Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus.
The wood is very hard and was traditionally used for the cogs of windmill machinery. The charcoal from hornbeam produces great heat. It was used to smelt iron. It was extensively used as a fuel wood. It is resistant to damage by deer and squirrels, and was used to mark land boundaries.
R Baxter. July 2004
Extracted from: Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey, Sinclair-Stephenson, 1996.
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