Blooming hedgerows photography competition

One of the joys during the Coronavirus lockdown was to cycle and walk in the vicinity of our homes in Cheshire and enjoy the splendid display of wildflowers along our hedgerows. This year, we are asking members, their friends and families to send in pictures of Cheshire Hedgerows in flower, which we will display on our website and a prize will be provided for the picture judged to be the best.

Your photo could show blossoming hedgerows in the landscape, wild flowers at the foot of a hedgerow, or detailed images of hedgerow or margin flowers.

In order to enter, please email your picture, with a short description (optional) and a note of the location, to photo.competition@cprecheshire.org.uk. Please also include your name and address. If you are on Instagram and would like us to tag your account when we share your image, please let us know your instagram name.

Our hedgerows have an obvious value as iconic symbols of the English Countryside and few organisations have done more to protect them over the last 100 years than the CPRE.

Cheshire, with its low percentage of woodland, is more dependant than most English Counties on the contribution of hedges and hedgerow trees to its landscape.

However the contribution of hedges to wildlife is also remarkable. These lines of connected unfarmed land are thought to support up to 80 per cent of our woodland birds, 50 per cent of our mammals and 30 per cent of our butterflies.

Hedgerows, and particularly older hedgerows, develop a wide range of plant species as they develop over decades and centuries. This gives them the a great range of flowers and fruit that will bloom at different times to feed insects and invertebrates which in turn provide food for our birds, mammals and butterflies, all within the relative safety of the hedgerow.

All entries will be shared on our website, Instagram and Facebook, credited to the contributor. The photo chosen as the best by our Trustees will receive a prize.

The competition closes on Monday 5th September.

Please email photo.competition@cprecheshire.org.uk for more details.