In historic terms, RCT represent an unplanned landscape. The fields and enclosure patterns we see today having often been created in a piece-meal manner from original expanses of wildwood. Therefore, the majority of the  hedgerows of the County Borough are species rich and ancient, with a diverse mix of native trees and shrubs (including small leaved lime in the Llanharan area), well-defined hedge banks and ditches, and excellent wildflower ground floras. These hedgerows represent a form of linear woodland, with species compositions, which reflect local woodland types. No systematic hedgerow survey has been undertaken in RCT but work for the Church Village by-pass surveyed hedgerows in a broad band across that part of the County Borough and, of those, the majority were ancient in character.  In RCT hedgerows are a feature of Taff Ely and Cynon Valley where they play an  important connectivity role, linking woodlands and proving key features for species with poor dispersal, such as dormice.

 

There are very few hedgerows in the Rhondda. More recent, planted hedgerows are features of some land reclamation sites and road schemes. When planting new hedgerows, the advice is not to try and plant species rich pastiche imitations of our wonderful and historically important ancient hedgerows, but to just use just hazel, and perhaps also hawthorn. Once established these new hedgerows will start the long process of  acquiring additional species through the natural process of colonisation from adjacent native woodlands and ancient hedgerows.

 

The rule of thumb in any thirty-metre section of ancient hedgerow surveyed is that each species found equates to a hundred years of existence. So, if you want to have a go at aging the hedgerows near you, if you can identify native trees and shrubs this is an easy and fun thing to do. Try it out on your next country walk.