Simon English
England Revisited

On an elm tree in fields 3/4 mile west of Newbold Pacey 1 1/2 miles east of Charlecote, east of Stratford-upon-Avon.

On a stick in an Elm hedge next to the pile of dry brown dust and rotten wood that are the remains of the great Elm tree that was growing here in 1971. All these great trees, that were such a feature of Warwickshire, died in the late 1970s and had to be felled.

Dutch Elm disease is a fungus, spread by the elm bark beetle, that clogs the xylem of the trunks. First the leaves wilt then the branches die and finally the trunk. In time the bark weathers off and the skeletal tree stands silver grey against the sky. The roots are unaffected so that the suckers that emerge, if trimmed, make a hedge. If allowed to grow these will become new trees and they grow fast. However the bark beetle flies high when looking for somewhere to lay her eggs and when these young trees reach 30 feet they enter the zone of re-infection. In 30 years I have seen 3 generations of young trees emerge grow to 30 feet then die.

Without the original trees it proved difficult to match the photographs to the hedges in the present landscape. After several visits, allowing for the gaps in the hedges to give access to modern plough and combine harvesters, I found that the original stumps were still there.

The fields are still used for growing cereals. The farm is still owned by the same family as it was in 1971.
Points 51 & 52