Devonshire hedgerows in spring

The whole valley is clothed in green now. The high hedgerows flanking narrow Devon lanes leap into life and turn them into multi coloured tunnels winding their way up and down steep hills.
RAINING SIDEWAYS:




In spring the Devon lanes are vibrant with the
loveliest of flowers—first snowdrops, blackthorn
and the early primroses, followed from late April
to early June by bluebells, wood anenomes, campions,
yellow archangels, early purple orchids and
hawthorn. As summer progresses, these are followed
by dog roses, cow parsley, honeysuckle,
meadow sweet, and the piercing mauvy-blue
flowers of vetch—all of which the Devon parson,
W. Keble Martin, depicted in colour in his book
The Concise British Flora.

Hedgerows are known to support a tremendous
range of other wildlife: over 600 plant
species, 1500 insects, 65 birds and 20 mammal
species have been recorded at some time living or
feeding in the Devonshire hedgerows. At least 30 species
of birds actually nest in them, too. Half our native mammals—
mice, voles, shrews, stoats, weasels, rabbits, foxes
and badgers—make their homes in hedges. It has been
estimated that of Devon's 73 non-woodland trees, more
than half a million isolated trees are to be found in her
hedges, banks and walls.

The Hermitage

In fact hedges have shaped and defined the character
of the Devon countryside for centuries. The
hedgerow network can be dated back 7,000 years, when
farming first started in Britain. Some hedges—like those
originally belonging to the earthworks of hill forts—are
as much as 4,000 years old; yet others, conserving
ancient land boundaries, can be dated from the Bronze
Age. Only prehistoric and Roman remains, which are
rare in Devon, are older than many of its common
hedges. It is for this reason that many archaeologists have 
asserted that the hedgerow system is not only Devon's
biggest and most magnificent prehistoric monument
but the only one to have remained virtually intact until
the middle of this century.

W.G. Hoskins has suggested that at least a quarter of
the county's hedges are more than 800 years old. But the
period between 1150 and 1350, one of exceptional
colonisation of the Devon countryside, was when most
of the county's small irregular fields, winding sunken
lanes and boundary banks came into being. Estimates
carried out in 1841 put the stock of Devon's hedges at
that time as between 50,000 and 60,000 miles.
Although there has subsequently been a great deal of
hedge removal (more than 150,000 miles of British
hedgerow have been grubbed up since 1945), the hedge
remains the most prominent and characteristic feature
of the present-day Devon landscape.

In praise of Devon: a guide to its people, places and character - John Lane - Google Books
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