Field Boundaries
Field boundaries include hedges, ditches and walls. It can be easy to ignore these habitats, but they are very important for wildlife.
Woodland habitats:
Hedges support a variety of woodland animal and plant species. Indeed many hedges represent the remnants of ancient woodlands, which were originally cleared for agricultural purposes. Many hedges have disappeared over the last 50 years due to field expansion and increasingly intensive agriculture.Wetland Habitats:
Ditches provide important wetland habitats for a diversity of wildlife including important plant and animal species like arrowhead and the nationally protected water vole. Like hedges, ditches are threatened and frequently lost due to the pressures for field expansion.Drystone Walls
The Lower Wye Valley could lay claim to the greatest density of drystone
walls in any UK protected landscape. Many are found at Hewelsfield and St Briavels
Common in the Gloucestershire part of the Wye Valley AONB. Here, an intricate
mix of very small fields containing pastures, orchards, houses and paddocks is
the result of the invasion and settlement of common land in the early 19th century.
At first sight, a lot of the field boundaries look like hedges and mature trees, interspersed with drystone walls. But at close range, many of the hedges turn out to be badly neglected and overgrown walls.
Many of the walls were built around existing trees, and are therefore estimated to be about 200 years old. There are massive butts of lime, beech and oak in them that must be relics of the pre-19th century wooded commons.
Local rumour has it that Napoleonic prisoners of war built a lot of the walls. What is certain is that many have persisted in this area, where in other parts of the country they were lost to field expansion. This is probably due to the multitude of small plots in separate ownership.
The drystone walls of the Lower Wye Valley are unique in design, and form an important landscape feature, as well as having immense value both historically and for wildlife. Many species of amphibians, reptiles and birds use the habitats provided by drystone walls for food, shelter and breeding purposes. Species of plant like wall pennywort, normally restricted to cliff and quarry face habitats, are abundant on drystone walls.
