Beech or Hornbeam hedge advice please

[furball]

I have a 70ft long garden. The fences are not mine but are falling down. I want to plant a hedge in front. I have a south facing garden on clay soil. It does get windy. I also have the problem that for the last 20ft of the garden a neighbour has planted the dreaded leylandii, now over 30ft tall, though suprisingly my side gets enough sun. I was going to plant a single hedge and have been given half a ton of well rotted manure. I was going to dig a trench and dig the manure in and plant bare root trees. Would you get beech or hornbeam. Thankyou.
(The fence is along a 4ft wide raised bed, 2ft high, with a wall retaining the soil. So there is plenty of soil).

[piskieinboots]

I dream of a beech hedge - I can't wait for the day when Snowdrop leaves the Air Force so that I can stay in one place long enough to plant AND see a beech hedge grow!!

So that'll be beech for me then

[perkin]

Hornbeam will be more successful than beech if you have clay soil. If it were me, I'd be tempted to incorporate in a few blackthorn plants as well, but only cos I have a sloe gin addiction...

[furball]

Thankyou for the replies, i think i will go with hornbeam, never had sloe gin but might have a look into it

[Kristen]

Probably a bit too late now, but I get my hedging plants from Ashridge trees. Always fantastic quality, but they are bareroot so only suitable for planting from Nov-Mar. I have some Copper Beech, but they are not doing brilliantly (even though they are planted in good soil and the trench was well prepared beforehand), so all the other hedges we have put in are Hornbeam as our soil is heavy clay here.

With the benefit of hindsight I would also put in a perforated drainage pipe.

If you cut the Leylandii branches back to the trunk (on your side) they won't regrow. Leylandii is a notoriously greedy feeder, but you might be able to establish a hedge in front of it, particularly if you are on the South side.