Simon English
England Revisited

On an oak tree near the junction of roads at Stainton Hall, 3 miles west of Gargrave.

On the same place on the same tree as 1971, some of the flag’s pins are still in the bark. My pressed leaf sample taken from this tree at the time show it to be a ‘Southern Beech’ not the Oak in my notes made 6 months later from memory. Maybe I thought that it was a ‘turkey oak’- similar leaf shape.
Anyway the immediate area looks unchanged however on arrival I find that the tree is dying. It is covered in tiny dead leaves and dry twigs. There are a few small branches of live trigs with small distorted green leaves but these are the leaves of a European Beech. This is a bit of a mystery as it would imply that the southern beech changed its leaf shape when under stress.
What is causing a still young tree to die like this? I thought maybe disease or, as it is next to the road, winter salt runoff coming through the dry stone wall. However local information from an adjacent point says that there was a severe spring drought with no rain for four months. The beech has shallow roots so maybe it is dying of thirst even if growing next to a pond. Certainly 100 yards away uphill I saw another southern beech in the same condition.
I do not know if this handsome tree will survive. Even if it does, in a much reduced form, its position so near the road suggests that its future is bleak. This is a shame as a foreign exotic planted in such a prominent position next to the concrete drive down to the farm buildings implies that it was planted to mark some event in the past.
The farm buildings nearby are still agricultural and are currently being used as a milking parlor.
Points 18 & 22