Charity campaign aims to restore more of Oxfordshire's hedgerows

Hedgerows have been a feature of the British countryside since the Bronze Age

A charity is appealing for communities to flag up any unloved land so it can restore and re-plant more hedgerows.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England's (CPRE) Hedgerow Heroes scheme aims to reinvigorate the shrubbery, which it describes as "the vital stitching in the patchwork of our countryside".

CPRE Oxfordshire is now calling on schools and community groups to get in contact if they want hedgerows restored or planted on their property.

It already works across the county.

CPRE undertakes the project with fellow charity Wild Oxfordshire.

Helen Marshall, director of CPRE Oxfordshire, said the campaign was about "planting new hedges and looking after the ones we've got".

She told BBC Radio Oxford they were "wonderful resources for nature and biodiversity".

She added that they were "all part of our history and our culture", referencing the chessboard in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland - which is believed to have been inspired by hedgerows in Otmoor.

But she also warned hedges have been "really under pressure" over the past 70 years.

About half of Britain's hedgerows were lost between the 1940s and 1990s, mostly in England, due to intensive farming and development

While the loss has slowed since the 1990s, neglect, damage and removal remain big threats.

It was recently revealed that England's hedgerows would stretch almost 10 times around the Earth if lined up end to end, according to a new map developed by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.