Originally published in Countryside Voices, the membership magazine of CPRE, the countryside charity.
Their campaigner Ellie also wrote up an account of the day
https://www.cpre.org.uk/stories/hedgelaying-in-the-oxford-green-belt/
As part of our mission to enhance the countryside, CPRE is supporting a number of pilot community
projects that are helping people improve their local green spaces. One of these is Hogacre Common
Ecopark, a rural oasis less than a mile from central Oxford, in the city’s Green Belt.
In 2010 the 14-acre patch of land, a former sports ground, was leased from Corpus Christi College to
be used for a number of low-carbon community projects, including a new woodland, allotments, an
orchard and a forest school. The revitalised site has been transformed into an invaluable community
resource, and CPRE Oxfordshire is assisting with its ongoing transformation by providing funds for
training courses, access improvements, information boards and the planting of a forest garden.
Their campaigners are delighted to be involved in this working demonstration of the potential of
Green Belt land for health, habitats and education. The first training event to take place thanks to
CPRE’s support was a hedgelaying course led by professional Clive Leeke. Regular members of the
Hogacre Common friends group, along with other interested locals and enthusiasts from further
afield, learned the secrets of the centuries old art. They then got to try their hand at taming Hogacre
Common’s own overgrown enclosure hedge – a worthy day’s work on a fantastic community space.
Find out more about CPRE Oxfordshire’s latest campaigns and events at cpreoxon.org.uk
Thanks to Andrew Cook for spotting this