Mr Jack Morley was a retired surveyor whom I met when we were doing conservation work on the South Downs. When Mr Peter Nelson was told about the hedgerow problem he invited us to survey the area of the farm which we did 22/9/93. Using Jack’s chains and markers we measured from the farmhouse hedge to the 5 actus spot then the 6 actus spot. Mr Nelson had told us of “2 curious ill-drained patches” and fortunately the little hollows had dried up. Also he had said that the hedges he had removed had been on a bank with ditches on both sides. Three pairs of ditches at each of the 5 actus and 6 actus spots would explain the hollows! The 5 actus spot was the deeper one; did the ex-service man do a better job? In 1826 Victorians would simply put up a hedge or a fence of barbed wire. It was the Romans who used a high bank with a ditch on both sides and wooden fences atop.
Mr Nelson didn’t pay much attention to the species in the hedge but remembered that there had been Hazels, Hawthorns and Ash there so it must have been more than 200 years old.
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