I have known middy page for nearly 5 yrs now,i first met middy when he came to my door to tell me he could help me with a hedge i was laying for a customer, which being a novice at hedge laying i was glad of the help from a man that had been doing hedge laying most of his life at the time he was 79yrs old.

In this photo Middy is 82 yrs old i 44 and a half yrs of age, i think any one will agree that he looks well for his age and i hope i am as good as him when i get that age. His hard life does not seem to have harmed in any way, middy although 83 is still exstreamly strong and can certainly knock a stake or to in with no trouble!

Middy is a well known local character ,of the like that only come along once in a life time.

His father was known as wag,  he along with middy and his brothers and mum were of the romany gypsie people. Middy his dad and brother jonny were poachers on local farms and estates this was mostly out of neccesity for a meal or to sometimes sell a few on, like rabbits, pheasants and the occasional deer if it come there way. Middy along with his family travelled around alot to different parts of hertfordshire and surrounding areas often in there gypsy horse drawn wagon and would pitch up in farm fields or a quite verge somewhere to stay for a night or maybe to work the local farms as hired help, But middy and his family were known mostly in welham green area of hertfordshire and were well respected as good hard working people.

Middy and his Dad worked together alot doing farm work like hedgelaying ,rick building thatching and using various bits of farm machinery, eg thrashing machines ,  seed sowing , they could do almost any type of manual work required on a farm at that time. Sadly middys father died a while ago leaving middy to carry on doing some of the work that he and his father used to do together. At this stage i think i should give middys 2 brothers a mention his older brother i think was charlie page who was a real nice gentlemen his occupation was as a scaffolder and general builder and when i look in front drive ways of areas that charlie worked in, you could generally say that was a charlie page driveway or a charlie page wall if you know his style.

His other brother was called johnny, who was so i am told was a rather shy man who liked to keep him self to him self and often went out on his own with his dog to catch a few rabbits.

Middy often has told me over a beer or two dfferent stories about him, his dad and brother johnny and the things they used to get upto. Johnny used to work at the local nursery and not very good at reading his watch he could only tell the time when the hands pointed at the hours, he apparently often would miss his breaks because he forgot to look at his watch at the right time, so he would have to work  till the watch went round to the next hour so he could   then tell the time by then he would have done an extra hour and missed his tea or lunch break he was often to embarrased to ask the time as middy said he would often blush because of his shy nature. But he worked for the nursery for a long time and they liked him. Johnny was also a very good hedgelayer probably as good as middy and often made little miniuture hedges to practice his skills.  Unfortunatly jonnhy and charlie are no longer with us but are not forgotten.

This is part of a hedge that runs along the Great North Road, towards Brookmans Park, Herts. The whole length on both sides of the road was laid during the war by middy and the Land Army Girls, who with middy and his father made a good job of laying the hedge, as it has stood the test of time, as you can see from the photos. After the work was done at the end of the day, it was of to the pub, the cock o north  for a well earned pint .

Old pleachers still to be seen in the hedge, this hedge really needs to be laid again  if it is to carry on being an effective boundary hedge. I would love to be able to do the work one day.

 I believe there would have been livestock in these fields at the time the hedges were laid, but sadly no more just a grass field now or occasionally broad beans.