Across the Mulgrave Estate we have been working with Natural England and the North York Moors National Park Authority to restore the ancient hedgerow network in specific targetted areas. One such area is in the Kettleness landscape out on the coast. A location with little tree or hedgerow cover, it has been a real challenge to restore the old network of field boundary hedges here. The majority of the old hedges date back to the 1850’s and have become weathered and stunted with only a few remnant stems visible in certain places.

The hedges that were first planted at the start of the restoration scheme in 2017 are now doing really well and have put on substantial growth to provide green corridors, nesting sites for farmland birds and enabling sequestration of carbon. Native hedge shrubs such as Hawthorn, Crab Apple, Field Maple and Blackthorn have made up the majority of the planted mix. The hedge restoration scheme is a good example of how farmers and land managers can combine commercially productive farming alongside tree planting, carbon storage and caring for the environment.

Since 2017, we have been adding around 600 metres per year to this significant landscape restoration project and will continue to do so into the future. The work has been a huge undertaking for contractors, farm tenants and Estate staff with over 45,500 hedge shrubs being planted since we first started - that’s a lot of digging!.