Each hedge is loaded thick wi green
John Clare, in ‘May’ from ‘The Shepherds Calendar’ (1827)
And where the hedger late hath been
Tender shoots begin to grow
From the mossy stumps below
While sheep and cow that teaze the grain
will nip them to the root again
They lay their bill and mittens bye
And on to other labours hie
We can’t let NATIONAL HEDGEROW WEEK– or as i have repurposed it INTERNATIONAL HEDGEROW WEEK for those of outside the UK-pass without a mention of John Clare , the ‘Peasants’ Poet’ of England who lived from 1793-1864.
Clare lived in a time of great change as the Enclosure Acts disenfranchised many from traditional land rights and the fabric of rural life shifted.
Many of his poems celebrate the rural worker, and The Hedger makes a frequent appearance.
Clare was born in Helpston in Cambridgeshire and went to school in the church in Glinton. My Uncle and Aunt live in Glinton in a house called Clock-o-Clay after another Clare poem celebrating the Ladybird. My aunt used to teach in the local school and I spent many happy holidays there.
Sadly Clare had a difficult life, passing through many different jobs and troubled as many of us are by problems with mental health. He spent his last 23 years in a Northamptonshire Lunatic Asylum.
It gives me great pleasure to connect with Clare through his words, but also through practicing the skills that were part of his reality- hedgelayer, scyther, woodsman.
I also connect with him as a person in a threshold space, watching and recording a major social transition. I wonder what he would have made of the Anthropocene .
James T Jones 
One response to “The hedger and John Clare”
I relate to all you say here, from the brief reflection on the life and work of John Clare, our current attempts to make some sense on the brink of an uncertain future, and the hedge as something much more than a landscape element. Thank you very much for your occasional postings which I appreciate.