The Black Hedge (Blacan Hegcean) of Risborough Starring @wc21ukproductionsltd - Citizen Science!

[@pwhitewick]

What a Joy, thanks both. Mad my day!

[@jointgib]

love these collaborations

[@AllotmentFox]

Thank you. Yes, I enjoyed it

[@JimBagby74]

Another Two-for-One deal! Huzzah! I like this network of creators. It's all come together quite organically. Hedley, Tweedy, Sam, The Whitewicks. And the comedy duo of Tom and Darren. "Carry On,Charter Chums"

[@AllotmentFox]

Thank you. Which Sam? I’m Sid James, by the way; Darren is Kenneth Williams

[@JimBagby74]

You are Sid James? Cor Blimey! "Sam Walks a Lot" is the channel. She has started to enter the periphery of the group of creators you've found yourself in. Whitwicks etc. There's also a Wiltshire man named James from "James Walks in History".His accent is as broad as they get.

[@NewHorizonsTravel]

Darren's insights into his life decisions resonate with many individuals. This is an excellent video. Thank you for sharing😍✨

[@AllotmentFox]

Yes, that was interesting wasn’t it? Thanks fir watching!

[@StormchaserJockMcGinty]

I think Darren’s explanation of his life choices speak for so many of us. Great little vid. Thanks.

[@AllotmentFox]

There are a lot of people in their 50s and 60s dropping out of the worst aspects of the rat race, so much so the government is panicking. I think it was Covid that did it.

[@jointgib]

@@AllotmentFox The Specials talked me into it years ago

[@philcollinson328]

I simply had to subscribe to you after watching your brilliant and fascinating collaboration with WC21. Thank you.

[@AllotmentFox]

Thanks, Phil. I missed about 40% of what I intend3d to do so I will be going back.

[@tweedyoutdoors]

Really interesting to see an account of this joint expedition from the other angle. I particularly liked the party where you were discussing how/why you started making KZbin videos. Interesting that it seems for both of you it was set in motion in your school days!

[@AllotmentFox]

I was intending to do a lot of interviewing but my natural instincts led me elsewhere. I want to express what I think about human nature and the land, etc, but I always fail at it. Character is a keen interest for me, just something I cant really relay.

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

I really enjoyed that. I've reflected on the answer I gave to that question and, whilst my history teachers undoubtedly inspired me, the roots of my interest in the past go back much further. One of my Grandmothers was a key influence in terms of both history and landscape. I can vividly remember how angry she would get about Oliver Cromwell and I think this probably came from her schooldays in the 1910s, when Royalist propaganda still underpinned the curriculum! Reading and Doctor Who also played a role and for as far back as I can remember, I have always been affected by old things being destroyed. Be that a terraced house or a hedgerow! Whilst I consider myself lucky to have grown up in the 70s, it was not a good decade for either of those things. Back in the 70s and 80s, though, I was very interested in the English Civil War and Victorian periods. The fascination with antiquity came later. The Roman walls in St. Albans possibly triggered that.

[@AllotmentFox]

@@WC21UKProductionsLtd me too on the Cromwell thing, though I expect my teachers were Marxists and the English Civil War was a proto-revolutionary war. I was shocked to discover the left hate Cromwell, in the same way that I was shocked to find the left aren’t enamoured of Israel. When I was young everyone wanted to go to a kibbutz and they were proto-revolutionary communes. As for demolishing things, I used to care but younger generations need to change things for their own needs and I don’t think it is right hardwiring resistance to change in our political system

[@AllotmentFox]

The 70s were great: writing to Jim’ll to fix things, Mike Read and Run-arraaand, Rolf Harris (can you tell what it is yet?), Jake the peg and his extra leg. Warm memories indeed

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

@@AllotmentFox I still love the stories around the escaping Regicides following the Restoration, though. There was one who lived to a grand old age and into the 1700s, in the Hague. And there's a town in America where they still tell the story of an Indian attack in which 2 white haired old men emerged from nowhere to lead the defense.

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

Thanks Tom. A thoroughly enjoyable day and 2 very different videos. Look forward to "working" with you again.

[@AllotmentFox]

I worked out how we got lost: do you remember the bit where we said they'd moved the path? That's why we didn't find it coming back.

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

@@AllotmentFox oh yes - it's really been bugging me that I couldn't remember crossing the outward path. I get lost quite often, but it makes it OK - for some reason - if I can work out where it went wrong!

[@AllotmentFox]

@@WC21UKProductionsLtd the thumbnail that didn’t have either of our ugly mugs on it came in with 50% of the clicks. That’s a proper lol. Our punters prefer a thumbnail sans middle-aged men.

[@WC21UKProductionsLtd]

@@AllotmentFox is that right? Hilarious!! I must try that thing, I’ve not given it a go yet.

[@AllotmentFox]

Its extra work but you’ll love seeing what people click on.

[@AndyJarman]

Those hedges were established in the last decades of Anglo Saxon England, within living memory of the Battle of Hastings. Or maybe even older. Amazing.

[@AllotmentFox]

Yes I’m enjoying the possibilities with these hedges. thanks for watch8ng!

[@Neilhuny]

I know that area well and have walked all the paths you were on - I love it. A very quick way to tell the difference between mature hornbeam and beech is via the bark - beech is very smooth and grey whereas hornbeam has vertically fissured bark. It's less obvious in young trees. Less quick, imo, the leaf edges of hornbeam have much more pronounced teeth compared to the wavy margins of beech leaves. The Pink and Lily has close ties with Wilfred Owen, the First World War poet I'm 99.99% certain that you wandered in to Grimms Ditch at one point (4:14) which may well have been a boundary marker but was more likely to have been a defensive boundary between opposing groups - definitely not the same as the Black Hedge feature, though one may have incorporated the other. But Grimms Ditch was off the route you walked so I'm a bit confused

[@AllotmentFox]

Thanks for that tip, I shall look out for the hornbeam now

[@slave2damachine]

Very interesting the average of the 3 takes you to about just before or just after the Norman conquest. You two should get together more often.

[@AllotmentFox]

It's a good rule of thumb as Hooper recognised. I often say I'm sure of something but I am sure that this confirms that it is the same hedge in the charter, both Rah Heges and Blacan Hegcean

[@WildwoodTV]

Typical modern hedging post-war 1950's (6 species)... 30% Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) 10% Field Maple (Acer campestre) 20% Wild Cherry (Prunus avium) 10% Hazel (Corylus avellana) 20% Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) 10% Dog Rose (Rosa canina) Crab apple too (it's cheap) - But when you get some coppice of Elder, Yew, Ash, Wych Elm, Hazel, box, spindle, rowan, etc. then it might be old... possibly with Oak & Beech stands (stand alone trees) Wrekin forest/ancient woodland bank boundaries have coppiced oak, ash, knarly quick & blackthorn, elder. Alder stands (wet) Over-stood Hazel coups, with bluebells, lots of Fallow deer, chalybeate springs and mining.

[@WildwoodTV]

I forgot Holly, and Ivy can be huge too!