One for those who sit in hedges

[Harnser]

The new Norwich northern bypass costruction has begone and part of it goes across one of my farmer friends fields . I had a look around today and was very saddened to see that they have cut down a magnificent mature hedge row that is 20 feet tall and about 100 yards long . I have been sitting in this hedge row for about 40 years shooting pigeons and it was a shock to see it laying on the ground . It was a haven for wild life and I have spent many a happy hour sitting in the hedge row watching the wild life whilst pigeon shooting . It's funny what silly things can make you sad .

 

Harnser

[bluesj]

Its funny how when pigeon shooting the shooting pigeons bit can become secondary

[andrewluke]

and people wonder why our wildlife is disappearing

[7daysinaweek]

another bit of established habitat lost, bloody frustrating harnser, same up here, every year another bit of land fenced off, ditches cleared out and hedges removed and horses put on. no scrub left for wildlife.

[mick miller]

And the northern bypass, apparently, goes absolutely nowhere. Such a waste.

[Jaymo]

Just checked out the routing and as stated----- why?

Unless your desp to get from Acle to the zoo at Lenwade ( is it still there? Not lived in Norfolk for many years) then I can't see the point of it.

Also, is Mid Norfolk Shooting School affected as the flyby vid I saw looks like it traverses it?

[bruno22rf]

Not a silly thing at all in my opinion - you have sat there for hours on end enjoying nature and no doubt pondering life and it's idiosyncrasies. Don't know about your area but around here (Bucks) it seems that every Landowner has become determined to cut back any hedge over 3 feet tall - looks terrible as it's normally done by simply smashing the branches down with spinning chains and must deprive so much wildlife of food and shelter.

[Danger-Mouse]

and people wonder why our wildlife is disappearing

 

There`s a canal not far from where I live. I quite often go fishing on it. Earlier this year I saw the council cutting down a tree/bush that I often fish beside. It was right on the water`s edge and on sunny days provided a nice bit of shade. I just can`t see why they chose to cut it down. The canal isn`t one of those little things that are 4 foot deep and 4 yards across, it`s a huge industrial waterway that`s over 9 foot deep in the edge and probably over 30 yards across so it`s not like the tree was ever going to obstruct anything. Plus the tree was one of the few features on that stretch. I just hope the removal of the tree hasn`t destroyed a decent peg.

[telf]

progress ? , job creation ? , god only knows what goes through the minds,(and pockets) of the baffoons that make the decisions you see to pointless and expensive alterations to roads etc

[mossy835]

same as one of my farms,waiting to have houses built on,two hedges have been taken out,may not build on it for 5 years but they have started buy the hedges,

[anser2]

It’s sad to see the great loss of wildlife habitats across our countryside today. I grew up in a small Broadland village in Norfolk with just a few hundred villagers . Now the village has become a satellite of Gt Yarmouth with over 5000 newcommers’. Gone are the sunken lanes and straggling unkept hedges. Now almost all of the fields where I used to stalk grey partridges and hedges and where I used to pot a few of the local squires pheasants 50 years ago and the wood where on a winters evening I waited for pigeons are gone under an urban jungle of houses and roads. Even the main dyke where I learnt to catch monster pike ( 17lb was my best ) is just a shallow muddy ditch with hardly enough water for a stickleback as the local drainage board dare not risk the higher water levels flooding the new houses. Even on the surrounding farmland and marshes the game birds have gone , constantly disturbed by the new settlers letting their dogs run wild .

 

I am glad I knew the village as it was , but it makes me very sad to see what it has become. I will be one of the people who will benefit from the new Norwich Northern bypass, it will shave 15 minuets off my journey form my N Norfolk home to some of my shooting marshes in the Broads , but do I really need that extra 15 minuets , I think not and its certainly not worth the loss of countryside .

[adzyvilla]

i go past the site every now and then, and it saddens me to to see what they are doing and for no better reason than to allow the developers in to pave over north norfolk and build houses for ***** from london to use at the weekend. it wont be long before norwich has filled everything inside the northern and southern bypasses.

 

And Jaymo, i don't think Mid Norfolk shooting ground is effected, although its very close the roadworks just miss the eastern edge. in time however when taverham has filled out, it might be different.

[fortune]

It's the same everywhere. Just up the road from me a farmer has put in an application supported by a developer to build some houses. The asking price will be in the region of £500,000 per unit. Some chance for youngsters to get a foot on the ladder. Every village has to have a 5 year building plan. Apparently. I feel that the local council are bent as the nine Bob note. Everything that they do is sly and underhand.

[Jaymo]

Thanks Adzyvilla

The you tube 'fly over' wasn't the clearest but am surprised how convoluted the route is and too many roundabouts to be effective surely?

Southern bypass was duelled and reasonably straight-- oh how I remember that being built as it crossed my route to school

[wisdom]

How times change, The moss around where I grew up was a wildlife haven and I spent many a happy hour stalking the dykes for rats first with an air rifle then progressed to a .410.Shot pigeons and crows with a 12 bore, oh and the odd rabbit.You couldnt live on the moss unless you were connected with agriculture, livestock or horticulture. There were acres and acres of greenhouses growing tomatoes and lettuce.Countless dairy farms and pig breeders & fatteners.Now 95%of the glasshouses have gone.All the dairyfarms have gone and there is only one pig farm left.There are however houses in abundance.Fields are sodden as the dykes are no longer tended nor the fields worked.Wildlife is just not around anymore.

Very sad really.And its called progress or so I am told.

[bornfree]

Its a weird road. its a ring road with a bit missing and unfortunately its the bit that's most useful to me.so its a 20 mile detour or carry on using the rat runs.

[adzyvilla]

its going to have loads of roundabouts so the developers can put a housing estate on every one of them (along with the occasional retail park or light industrial estate). It is ridiculous that it wont connect up with the A47 at the Easton roundabout, but if rumours are correct, it would'nt be worth the money and hassle to build a main road across the wensum valley as a lot of the land is flood plain and not suitable for housing! (not that it hasn't stopped them building elsewhere on flood plain). It makes you want to cry that the county council have just steamrollered though the plans for this ridiculous road. In my opinion the greed and corruption involved in building this road to nowhere is staggering.

[team tractor]

Try having hs2 going through :(

It's covering just about every bit of land I've ever shot . I'm loosing 5 farms in one village and it's effecting every major route in or out of Tamworth to Birmingham so will cause hours of delays.

The last lot was the widening of the railway. It made my 10 minutes drive to work a 1hr and a quarter for 2 years. ( 3 miles)

We have lost so many fields around here to roads , shopping centres, railways . They're even building a service shed on the one farm for the trains.

 

It's upsetting as I live in a beautiful part

[yod dropper]

I've tried writing a decent and lengthy post but it can't properly be covered. First I really get that sense and pleasure of intimate knowledge of these spaces we inhabit. Secondly, this road to nowhere is all about housing as dictated by central government, 37,000 in 'greater Norwich' over the next 10 years and many more in the county on top of the thousands already built; just for the immigrants the UK needs to build something like 120,000+ each year. If people are okay with immigration they've got to be okay with this. I'm saddened, frustrated and angered in equal measures. On some forum somewhere I once used the signature, 'In the rainforests they call it destruction, here they call it progress'.

Edited April 19, 2016 by yod dropper

[Sian]

Not a silly thing at all in my opinion - you have sat there for hours on end enjoying nature and no doubt pondering life and it's idiosyncrasies. Don't know about your area but around here (Bucks) it seems that every Landowner has become determined to cut back any hedge over 3 feet tall - looks terrible as it's normally done by simply smashing the branches down with spinning chains and must deprive so much wildlife of food and shelter.

 

I travel around a bit for shooting at weekends and have noticed that smashed look you talk about absolutely everywhere for hedges, trees etc. It looks absolutely awful and I cannot see how it can be the best way to manage growth. It might be the cheapest I suppose but still don't think its justified.

[Grandalf]

There's just far to many humans about.

If it was any other species on earth, then the sprayers would be out.

Plus the traps and the teams of marksmen.

We don't do nature any favours and that's for sure.

[Scully]

There's just far to many humans about.

If it was any other species on earth, then the sprayers would be out.

Plus the traps and the teams of marksmen.

We don't do nature any favours and that's for sure.

 

This. As a race we have engineered methods to reduce child mortality, created better quality food and therefore better diets and in general live longer.

We breed at an alarming and unsustainable rate and as far as the UK is concerned, we only have a limited amount of space. Something has to give, and so far it's the land, but there has to come a time when we outgrow this small island.

[Harnser]

I travel around a bit for shooting at weekends and have noticed that smashed look you talk about absolutely everywhere for hedges, trees etc. It looks absolutely awful and I cannot see how it can be the best way to manage growth. It might be the cheapest I suppose but still don't think its justified.

The bush wacker doesn't actually do any harm to the hedge row . It doesn't look very nice when just done but the hedge row will always recover from this seemingly harsh treatment with fresh growth . What do annoy me is that the farmers won't let the hedges grow more than a few feet high . The bush wacker does more damage to nesting game birds than any damage to the hedge rows. Some farmers will bush wack the hedge rows in the middle of the breeding season . They should be ashamed of them selves .

 

Harnser

[Grandalf]

It is now illegal for them to do this but some still do.

[anser2]

Its what I call the Norfolk Farmers disease. If a hedge is there it has to be kept neat and tidy so it gets cut every year sometimes several times a year. On one farm I surveyed for HLS the environmental friendly farmer only cut his hedges every 2 years so some sections had berries and food for the birds every year and next thing the surrounding farmers were moaning it looked untidy even though it was not on their land. Form a financial point of view cutting every 2 years is the most effective method when you balance the costs in manpower wages and use of a tractor and cutter against any shading effect on the crop reducing yield. I know of several farmers who have periods when they are very busy i.e., harvest and sowing , and periods when things are slack. In the slack periods when the farmer has little else to do he goes out and destroys hedges as a wildlife resource.

 

One factor to bear in mind it’s against the law to cut hedges between March 31^st and July 1^st when most birds will be breeding .