Windy alley

Hi,

Complete newbie gardeners here. We got our first house last year and the garden was a complete blank canvas with dreadful soil (new build). It's all going quite well but we have a side alley on the house that seems to channel the wind so the plants on one side of the garden are getting battered, particularly as this winter was so windy.

Has anyone got any suggestions for which plants would help break the wind a bit? The garden is south facing so the alley has sun nearly all day and we're in Cornwall, so coastal winds! We were thinking some kind of everygreen arch hedge?! Is that even possible? We still need access to the alley which is about 1.5 m wide and opens right out onto the garden. We'd like to try and get something established now before another windy winter.

Thanks!