Media
WestcountryHedgelayer.com photo and video credits: BEESTON MEDIA
EVENT
Working the Wild: Ancient Skills in a Changing World
Paul Lamb and Ben Short with Lulah Ellender
Part of Festival of the Garden 2025
20 July 2025, 5pm (this event has ended)
Long before rewilding became a buzzword, rural craftspeople were quietly living in deep relationship with the land – shaping it with hand tools, working to the rhythm of the seasons, and maintaining fragile ecosystems with centuries-old skill.
In this evocative conversation, hedgelayer Paul Lamb and charcoal burner Ben Short reflect on lives built at the boundary between labour and landscape. Lamb travels the south-west in a traditional wagon, restoring hedgerows by hand and preserving the wildlife corridors that have shaped the British countryside for generations. Short’s work in the woods – chronicled in his memoir ‘Burn’ – speaks to a longing for simplicity, purpose and reconnection in an age of disconnection.
Together they’ll explore the value of vanishing rural skills, the intimacy of working with nature, and what we might recover – culturally and ecologically – when we live closer to the land.
This event is chaired by author Lulah Ellender.
EVENT
Paul Lamb Of Thorn and Briar
Hay Festival 2025, Sunday 1 June 2025 (this event has ended)
Hedgelayer Paul Lamb takes us on an enthralling journey, celebrating the benefits of hedgerows in our countryside and a way of living that has all but disappeared in recent decades.
From the end of summer until the birds nest in the spring, Lamb lives in his wagon and travels the south-west corner of England, maintaining the ancient boundaries of the British countryside. He gives an insight into his life on the road, explains why traditional management techniques of our hedgerows are essential, and why he chooses to preserve our heritage for future generations.
Known on Instagram as the westcountry_hedgelayer, Lamb has over 180,000 followers.
In conversation with the writer and editor, Kitty Corrigan.
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Viral hedgelayer lands book deal
A hedgelayer from Somerset has landed a book deal after his videos went viral on social media.
BBC NEWS - SOMERSET
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My mission to save Britain’s dying hedgerows
One of our last master hedgelayers has become a star online, with idyllic videos of his rural life. But it’s the craft that counts, he says.
TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE
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Life & Writing in the English Countryside with Paul Lamb - The West Country Hedgelayer
Interview with The English Pilgrim, Luke Sherlock.
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My travelling life as a West Country hedgelayer
In Of Thorn & Briar, Paul Lamb tells of his almost nomadic existence repairing hedgerows in the English countryside — and why we should preserve this dying art.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
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![Paul staking a hedge]()
Meet the hedgelayer with 200,000 followers
The 48-year-old set up his account (@westcountry_hedgelayer) less than five years ago, on the advice of his daughters who are both in their 20s.
MAIL ON SUNDAY - YOU MAGAZINE
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The man using social media to keep art of hedgelaying alive
Paul Lamb from Bridgwater has built up hundreds of thousands of followers online.
BBC RADIO SOMERSET - 07 April 2025
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Meet the hedgelayer reviving a craft rooted in the Middle Ages
From his converted Bedford lorry in Somerset, Paul Lamb is on a mission to restore Britain's lost hedgerows.
COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE
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