Dead tree in hawthorn hedge

Does anybody know why the original tree might have died?

 

The hedge looks older than the house.
Original hedge before the house was built maybe?

 

The hedge is a lot older than the house. The hedge used to run the length of the street. The builders had to leave it in place but the other house buyers (five of us) took it out after buying and built walls. It's nearly dark here but I will take a quick picture.

 

Not entirely clear due to the light but this is an old hedge that used to be continuous. Photos show the gap for the new access road and then the end of my hedge leading on to the brick walls that my neighbours replaced it with outside their houses.

 

Possibly it was a field boundary hedge and has been subjected to various abuses over the years the main one being the road and footpath affecting water and oxygen getting to the roots, then it has been pruned to fit a relatively small envelope, so it's not really a surprise that one aging hawthorn has given up an uneven fight.
You see it in field hedges where they just get flailed once a year instead of being laid every 10 years or so and more lightly cut back in the interim.

 

I expect it was a field boundary hedge as you say NigelJ. It is much older than the road. You can see what is left of the field in the first photo. It was very rural here within my grandparents lifetime.

 

Most developers around here trash the field hedge before they even make a start, its the first thing to go.
You are kind of lucky your bit survived as it is.

 

They would have but

A whole other story. We had protests. Street scene was lovely with the hedge.

 

I'd agree. It was, and still is, a common boundary hedge for fields.
We're lucky round here that the hedges have mostly been retained where newer houses have been built, because there's quite a lot of footpaths between them and the houses, rather than the house footprint containing the hedges themselves.
There's one house in another area, about a mile or two away, which has a similar hedge, with a gappy base. I think most folk there have either replaced the hedges with a fence, or another type of hedge, but a lot of the original hawthorn is still present.
I do remember when it was all just fields....

 

Normally hawthorn (and native hedges) are planted as double rows offset. Perhaps you could introduce a second row on the inside. If you source hawthorn hedging* it requires only a slit made with a spade into which you can slide the twiggy plant and then heel it in tightly.
A more radical repair could be done by allowing the hedge to be splayed in traditional manner and tied in.
*https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/hawthorn-hedging-crataegus-monogyna

 

Thank you. If I only need a slit in the soil, rather than a hole, I believe that I can introduce one or two new plants between those already there. Perhaps offset slightly.

 

If you can get young whips (or grow from seed or cuttings) they'll have a better chance of establishing in the gap than a bigger plant.

 

Thanks. Bare rooted whips don't seem expensive to buy.

 

It's bare root season now, and you'll be able to pre order some whips from a decent hedge supplier for very little outlay. You don't have to order a huge amount to do a nice little run on the inside, which will then fill out well.
Ordering now would also give you time to prep the area, which means a very speedy planting session once they arrive.