The history in the hedgerows

When I moved to Britain as a teenager, hedgerows were something I resented. Where I had grown up in Madagascar and Kenya, once you were out of the town you could roam freely across the landscape. In England, a walk in the countryside consists of navigating endless zig-zags from one parcel of land to another, because everything is chopped up into discreet fields with hedgerows.

To be honest, I found this restrictive and unwelcoming at first, a constant reminder that every inch of the landscap...