The Singing Hedge
- Jenny Hyndman
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
The LANCE Trust’s ongoing project is transforming an area alongside Weston road that's become overgrown with bramble and causing problems for people and wildlife alike.
At the Weston Road end of the village , there is a steep bank that runs alongside the pavement from the Little Tipple bus stop to Archgrove — this is Archbank aka “The Singing Hedge”. It’s hard to walk past without hearing the excitable sounds of house sparrows , who love the dense hedge above the bank — hence the “Singing Hedge”.
The bank is made up of steep clay soils and stone that was built as a retaining wall in the 70s in addition to a dramatic natural stone ledge. Over the years, various trees and shrubs (native and non-native) have been planted there and there have been several attempts at naturalistic planting. However, the area had become quite overgrown: bramble is dominant and the vegetation is encroaching on the pavement and pedestrians. It was difficult to use the pavement with a buggy, dog , or wheelchair as the branches and brambles were encroaching. In addition, the bank had lost its biodiversity and opportunity for wildlife — as it was a mass of bramble only.
The LANCE Trust and Darran from Bloom Gardening agreed to kick-start a recovery project to cut back some of the abundant growth and encourage native biodiversity, but without losing the habitat , which is much used by the sparrows (an endangered red-listed bird in this country).
This first phase was selective clearing to allow for planting in the spring and further management in the future. The LANCE team, Darran and some local volunteers met on two chilly days in November and December to get to work and were delighted with our progress! We were very grateful for the kind words and support of locals — we even received pastries to keep us going.
Phase two will rely on rallying volunteers to help with planting and weeding, on a couple of occasions in the spring and summer.
Please keep an eye on our Volunteering page, Whatsapp group or Facebook group for details:
Or, send us an email: LANCET2021@protonmail.com
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