Grandmother vows to chain herself to hedge after neighbour threatens to cut it down

Peter Stevens
Fri, 24 Apr 2026 06:18:21 +0000

A grandmother has vowed to chain herself to a hedge after her neighbour threatened to cut it down.

Caroline Duddridge, a semi-retired teacher from Cardiff, said her neigbour was "determined" to cut down her hedge.

She said the hedge is "full of nesting birds and hedgehogs" and brings her family "immense joy".

Her neighbour, she claimed, has repeatedly threatened to cut down the fence, which has resulted in the two no longer talking to each other.

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Ms Duddridge said the hedge requires "very little maintenance - only cutting back about twice a year".

She said: "Me and my neighbour have fallen out hugely over this hedge as for the past two years he has been determined to cut it down and replace it with a wooden fence."

The grandmother said the neighbour row has seen "multiple arguments" - and permanently damaged their relationship.

She added: "I think he wants to do it because his neighbour on the other side replaced their hedge with a fence a couple of years ago.

"I also fell out with that neighbour over their decision, and we no longer speak.

"Me and my kids are both willing to chain ourselves to the hedge to prevent it being cut down. I’m not sure on the legalities, but I truly feel that we have a right to keep this."

Ms Duddridge previously made headlines when she claimed to have charged her family for Christmas dinner after her husband died in 2015.

In 2022, she charged her adult relatives £15 and her youngest grandchildren £2.50.

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But in 2023, she upped her rates due to the cost of living crisis and rising food prices, she claimed.

Then the next year, she claimed to have made £25,000 by charging her adult children to watch her grandchildren.

After she became a teaching assistant in 2022, she said her daughter Amanda, 39, asked her to babysit for "two full days a week".

Ms Duddridge wrote in The Sun: "Then I thought about it more and said I would do the childcare... for a price.

"I thought £15 for a half-day per child or up to £50 for a full day was a very generous offer."

Her nanny rate was introduced in 2014, and has "gone up in line with inflation", she said.

She said: "I need to look after my future. What I’m doing doesn’t mean I love my grandchildren less, it just means I’m sensible."