Thank you to everyone who supported us during our first week long series of events for National Hedgerow Week as we championed our beloved Cornish Hedges; everyone who came to events, those who interacted with our daily hedging tips, and especially to the awesome team who work alongside me in CREST. Ryan, Jim, Jennie, Jacqueline - you are all stars! Back to our normal business of championing Cornish Hedges now!!!!
Check out our Stories each day next week as we celebrate our beloved Cornish Hedges during National Hedgerow Week 2026. Each day, we will be posting a tip from our skilled training team on how to build a strong hedge. Whilst most of our training is purely hands-on, we like to back this up with some theory work - particularly on our longer courses where mastery of the aspect is crucial to the would-be professional hedger.
We’re nearly at the end of the current Intermediate Certificate in Cornish Hedging course. This course is part of our Lantra Customised Provision suite of courses. The course is an assessed course, with successful trainees receiving a certificate from Lantra - the UK’s largest land based training provider - that shows they have a level of competency and a measurable guide to their own performance output as they venture into the working world. The training is largely hands-on, but all learning is backed up by accessible theory and group discussion by our training team. Our training team is made up of Cornish Hedging professionals who also hold a minimum of l3 teaching and training award
Tomorrow is the big assessment day, where the current cohort has to demonstrate everything they’ve learnt on the course by building a small section of hedge. No exam, just time of the tolls and on the hedge.
Our “Little Hedgers Explorer Day” as part of National Hedgerow Week takes place on Saturday 9th May in Perranwell. With activities such as seed planting, flower pressing, a scavenger hunt, badge making and lots more, we’d love for you to join us. Tea, coffee and cakes available for a cash donation. Please see our website - crestcornwall.co.uk/workshops - or send us message for further details or to book a place. Free entry! Children must be supervised at all times.
We’re halfway through our 10 day Intermediate course in Cornish Hedging. I have a great cohort to work with, already passionate about what they are building, constantly questioning the why’s and wherefore’s of the hedging process. Over this week we’ve built the ‘random’ section of a Classic Penwith style hedge, getting to grips with using the larger stones to build a solid lower half of the hedge, before we move on to the more uniform ‘edgers’ that make up the top section of the hedge. It has been a week of minor victories, frustration as we push ourselves to greater things, and ending the week on a high as the many bits of teaching all come together and the stones start to flow into the hedge. Roll on Monday!!!!!
“If you can move it an inch, you can move it a mile.” Words I remember being told by Cornish Hedges advocate Robin Menneer when I started out in this fine craft over 20 years ago. In a world where mechanisation has changed the way many jobs are done, it’s still important to practice and maintain the timeless methods as well. On our current intermediate hedging course, we’ve been moving some hefty grounders - or “lousers” - with levers and rollers, without even breaking into a sweat! It’s steady, safe and mindful work. Very satisfying indeed!
Our first training course of 2026 begins this morning. An Intermediate 10 day course - an intensive dive into Cornish Hedging for those wishing to take things further than our other courses or want to pursue the craft professionally. Couldn’t have asked for better weather.
We’re excited to be able to announce the ‘menu’ of events that we’ll be running during National Hedgerow Week. Please visit the ‘workshops and events’ page on our website - crestcornwall.co.uk - send us an email or message for further details or to book!
We're just finishing up fine-tuning these events, so check this space or our website for full details on how to book in the coming days. In the meantime, please get in touch if there is any way we can help.
Andrew Cockshaw, Cornish Hedger and CREST secretary is submitting an entry for Cornish to be included on the Unesco Inventory of Living Heritage. We see this as an important part in protecting this ancient craft, as well as further raising awareness of the importance of hedges as part of our history, culture and heritage.
An important part of this process is gaining consent from the community to ensure that there is a consensus to submit this element to the inventories. This was discussed at a February meeting of The Guild of Cornish Hedgers, and the decision to submit was agreed by all those in attendance.
We're now reaching out to the wider community of Cornish Hedgers and hedge lovers. If you have any concerns or comments about the submission, we'd love to hear from you. If you are able to share this with anyone who is involved with the craft of Cornish Hedging, we'd be extremely grateful.
Please contact Andrew directly at [email protected] before March 13th with any concerns.
Many thanks!
We've just released dates for Cornish Hedging training courses for the Spring and early summer. These are our flagship Lantra Customised Provision courses, with a course to suit any experience level. More dates and events to follow!
