On my daily walks around our village, I have become aware of the vast variety of different ways that people mark their property. I’m now on the lookout for all these variations.
The boundaries fall into four main groups, fences, hedges and walls or a combination of two or more. These are just the domestic ones. Then there will be all the rural rails, industrial installations and defensive divisions.
It got me thinking about the historical ways in which people divided land and protected property; from Iron Age mounds, to Medieval castle walls, picket fencing to keep stock in, ditches and moats to keep enemies out. This sounds like an idea for a talk to me. Or at least a theme I can return to.
In the meantime, here’s just one example of each. And my photo above is where someone has used a fence behind a hedge behind a wall. Which one is the actual boundary? Are they hedging their bets?
