Ludlow gardens can contain mature boundary hedges that need careful reduction and shaping to keep them in proportion with the rest of the outdoor space.
SPR Trees & Landscapes provides professional hedge maintenance in Ludlow for homeowners, landlords and businesses needing help with routine cutting, shaping or heavily overgrown hedges.
Ludlow gardens can contain mature boundary hedges that need careful reduction and shaping to keep them in proportion with the rest of the outdoor space.
With over 15 years' experience, SPR can help with everything from regular hedge trimming through to substantial reductions on large conifer and Leylandii hedges. Every hedge is quoted after seeing it, because length, height, width, species and access all change the job.
Cutting keeps a hedge at whatever size suits the garden, which is a different question from how big it could get. The useful thing to decide before quoting is what height and width you actually want it held at — then each visit is maintaining that rather than negotiating it again.
Shaping is how a hedge keeps looking right at whatever size it is held at. The taper matters, the top line matters, and the ends matter; get those consistent and a modest hedge looks considered rather than merely short.
Reduction brings an oversized hedge back into proportion. The realistic target is decided by the hedge as much as by you: on species that reshoot from old wood you have real freedom, and on conifers the green growth sets the limit.
Keeping a conifer hedge in proportion is a maintenance job rather than a rescue one. Cut inside the green each year and the size is entirely under your control; let it go and the hedge decides.
Held at a sensible height, Leylandii make an excellent boundary. The problem is that they do not stay where you put them — the growth rate means the hedge is a different size every year unless someone is cutting it.
The rule most people have half-heard is the "two metre" one, and it is worth stating properly because it is almost always repeated wrong. There is no legal maximum height for a hedge. You are not obliged to keep a hedge at two metres and nobody can make you cut one simply because it is taller than that. What the two-metre figure actually marks is the threshold at which a neighbour can complain to Shropshire Council under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.
For a complaint to qualify, the hedge has to be a line of two or more evergreens over two metres tall that acts as a barrier to light or access. That means conifers, laurel and privet are in scope; beech and hornbeam, being deciduous, are not, and neither is a single tree however large. The neighbour has to have tried to sort it out directly first, and Shropshire Council charges a fee to take the complaint on — fees vary widely between councils and change each April, so it is worth checking the current figure rather than relying on what someone was charged elsewhere.
If Shropshire Council does issue a remedial notice, there are firm limits on what it can require. It cannot order the hedge to be reduced below two metres, and it cannot order it removed. It can require a reduction to some height at or above two metres and require that height to be maintained, and the notice is registered as a local land charge, so it stays with the property when it is sold.
It is worth being precise about nesting birds, because the shorthand version puts people off booking work they could perfectly well have done. There is no closed season for cutting a garden hedge. The offence is damaging an active nest, and the way that is avoided is a proper inspection before starting rather than a date on a calendar.
You may also have been told that hedge cutting is banned from 1 March to 31 August. That ban is real, but it is a farming rule: the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 apply to hedgerows on agricultural land and expressly exclude any hedgerow within the curtilage of a dwelling house. An ordinary garden hedge is outside them, and outside the older Hedgerows Regulations 1997 for the same reason.
One genuine catch: a hedge itself cannot carry a Tree Preservation Order, but a tree growing up within one can, and an old hedge that has become a line of trees can be covered too. A protected tree needs written consent from Shropshire Council at any size — there is no small-tree exemption for a TPO. If the property is in a conservation area, a tree in the hedge needs six weeks' notice unless its stem is under 75mm across, measured 1.5m up. The hedge around it stays unrestricted either way. Where a boundary is a mix of hedge and self-sown trees, that is worth checking before work starts.
Because SPR Trees & Landscapes covers landscaping as well as hedge work, a job that starts as a reduction can carry straight on into clearance, fencing or turfing without a second company, a second quote and a second set of access arrangements.
A hedge and the trees behind it are usually the same boundary problem viewed from two angles. Having one company look at both means the work is planned around what the boundary needs rather than around who was booked first.
Five guides written for Ludlow homeowners, covering what hedge work costs, what drives the price and how to decide what you actually need.
Hedge cutting and reduction carried out by SPR across Worcestershire and the surrounding counties.
“Trimmed large conifer hedge and bushes - A really excellent job done would recommend”
“We employed these guys to trim the conifers at the end of our garden. The work they carried out was first...”
“Cut and trimmed our Leylandii hedge two weeks ago. Took away the cuttings. Excellent job, as usual....”
The cost depends on the hedge's length, height, width, condition, access and the amount of work required. Contact SPR for a free quotation.
Yes. Professional hedge cutting, trimming and shaping are core SPR services.
Yes. We can assess large overgrown hedges and discuss appropriate height reduction.
Yes. Leylandii hedge cutting and reduction form part of our hedge-maintenance service.
Depending on the hedge and its condition, we can assess excessive width and discuss the appropriate work.
Yes. We provide professional cutting and reduction for large conifer hedges.
Yes. SPR also provides tree pruning, reductions, removals and stump grinding.
Yes. Call or WhatsApp 07542 451291.
No. There is no legal maximum height for a garden hedge, and you cannot be made to cut one just for being tall. Two metres is the point at which a neighbour can complain to Shropshire Council about an evergreen hedge that blocks their light or access — and even then the council cannot require it below two metres or order it removed.
Yes, provided there is no active nest in the section being cut. It is not an offence to cut a hedge in summer; the offence is damaging a nest that is in use or being built. We check before starting and leave any part with an active nest until the birds have finished. The 1 March to 31 August ban you may have read about applies to farm hedgerows, not garden ones.
SPR covers Worcester and the surrounding towns for hedge maintenance, tree surgery and wider landscaping.
SPR Trees & Landscapes, 6 Rose Avenue, Worcester, WR4 9PY
Need a hedge cut, shaped or reduced in Ludlow? Tell us what you need and we'll get back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07542 451291 or WhatsApp us.
