Written in a farm notebook kept with seed and feed accounts.
3 December 1954
Laid the south hedge between lower pasture and cart track. Frost in the ground but workable once the sun came up.
Cut and pleached as usual. Ash stakes driven at two-foot intervals. Bound with twine and finished clean.
By week’s end the centre stretch has begun leaning inward again.
Not wind. Wind’s been northerly and steady, which would push it the other way.
Stakes remain upright. Checked with level. No give in the soil beyond that section.
Twine still tight. No cut marks. No sign of cattle pressure. Track side undisturbed.
Reset the section on Thursday. Drove stakes deeper and trimmed back weight on the field side.
Returned Sunday morning and found the same inward bow along roughly eight yards.
Thorn growth thicker on the inside of the bend. Outside facing side sparse.
Frost holding along the base of that stretch only, though ground elsewhere cleared by midday. Soil there darker and softer under heel, not waterlogged, just heavier.
Smell along that length stronger than the rest. Not manure. More like turned leaf mould, though no heap laid there.
Pulled one stake to reset and found it came free easier than expected for frozen ground. Re-driven without issue.
No obvious cause.
Will leave that length uncut for remainder of winter and see how it stands come spring.
No further adjustment for now.