"The growth of hedges." Topic

I feel a bit like the Toaster in Red Dwarf.

However at a show I was curious, In the UK hedges became a thing from about 1604. and were probably fully in place by the 1800's so enclosed fields was where the action was. When I look at Napoleonic war games there never seem to be hedges in any quantity. In Normandy there were loads of hedges and Bocage etc. by that period. Were the areas where the big battles take place devoid of hedges an if so why?

I believe that agricultural practices in most of Europe were quite different than those typical of England, Flanders, and Normandy. Larger, non-enclosed fields were (and are) typical of Austria, North Germany, and Poland, for example.

Yes, from my time with the Army in Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg I saw few "bocage" type hedges.

Jim

Generals with cavalry tended to avoid close terrain if possible. It upset the horses.

The agricultural practice in most of europe is unenclosed fields. I would also guess that there is a lack of stones in the earth, as a result of no ice ages. In scandinavia especially southern sweden, Denmark and norther germany, there is a lot of stones, which you put into hedges!
Note that in italy there nearly no hedges but especially after 1830, there is a lot of wine fields, and mulberry bushes for silkworms, which functions as dense woods or dense hedges.

UK Notes:

Medieval times: Three-fields system – those close-in to village rented, those further out owned by Lord and tilled by peasants.

Towns: Market gardens close-in to town, surrounded by hay-fields.

Early-modern (post Plague). More rented fields, enclosure acts got rid of three-fields – consolidation with enclosure by hedge/wall/fence. Village stock pounds for errant animals (with farthing/penny fine to release)

Up here in West Yorkshire – a lot of Greenwoods – evergreen woods for winter fodder. Similar in south in form of hedges (think Naseby dragoon hedges)

General upland UK: Towns uphill from marshes/watercourses linked by roads on ridgelines, descending to valley bottoms to cross watercourses. Busy routes with stone bridges, packhorse routes with narrow bridges (no sides to impede panniers)

Coastal UK, crossings of large rivers – larger towns (eg Yprk, Exeter, Chester) and ports.

Everything else would be waste/heath-land, or a managed forest – most of which would be pretty open.

ECW field battles always seemed to be on wastes or heaths.

A post from last year mentioned that the route back into the village would be fenced so that returning livestock didn't wander and munch on the march.

What intrigues me is that I've seen a contemporary letter from the Duke of York's campaigning in the French Revolution complaining that things are a lot more cut up than they were in Marlborough's day, to the advantage of French skirmishers. But we have good maps of the Hundred Days battles over much the same area, and they look pretty open--certainly no Normandy-style hedgerows. My guess is that we're missing a certain amount of boundary markers--fences or even thin hedges providing some concealment for skirmishers, but nothing which would impede the movement of close-order troops.

Info dump:

France:

TMP – Accurate landscape for HYW France

Pdf (x61 pg):

IX: Agrarian Changes in Early Modern Europe – D. Agriculture in Early Modern France: 1453 – 1789 (to the French
Revolution)

Austrian village layouts:

TMP – Napoleonic Wars in North Germany – Tabletop Buildings

Links to this fabulous resource:

Wargamingraft : 1809 Austrian terrain

In Mercer's account of the Waterloo campaign he says "Behind the ground on which my guns were formed was a long hedge (a rara avis in this country)" i.e. an unusual thing.

There are boundary hedges in England which are ancient. Enclosed fields were later but the process had started by Henry III's time – near where I live a bunch of peasants got into trouble because they tore up enclosure hedges planted by one of the king's favourites. After the Battle of Evesham, they were forgiven having to pay anymore of the fine but didn't get back what they had already paid.

On Continental Europe enclosed fields were much rarer. Boundary stones were often used and in places there is still the tradition of an annual survey where disturbed stones are replaced. On the modern fields covering the area of Waterloo you can see modern markers and, in places, tiny boundary trenches which are no more than a rut.

A few areas did have some enclosed fields – parts of the Netherlands, Normandy and bits of Prussia iirc (the last down to Fred II I think).

Hedges in Europe could also be used around parks, grazing land and forest to keep animals in or out – and to let the locals know where they weren't allowed. I think the Poitiers hedge may well have been to protect the vineyards.

Thank,s this is a really informative thread. Stoppage that last link was a real treasure as you say.