Once upon a time, elm trees were a common sight in the English countryside. Mark Seddon offers a solution for their return.
THEY are, perhaps, some of the best-kept arboreal secrets in England. Huge, mature elm trees, their outline a sudden and thrilling surprise, billowing like thunderclouds above the hedges of a few scattered villages in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. In Steeple Gidding and Boxworth, but, above all, in the Cambridgeshire village of Abbots Ripton, the elm, quite remarkably, is still king.
The English elm was, for the most part, wiped out 40 years go by Dutch elm disease, yet, here in Abbots Ripton, there are hundreds of mature, stately elms. Those dusty summer lanes in the heart of England that were half-black shadow, half-tattered sleepy sunlight among the cobwebs, nettles and leafy elm shoots that Gerald Wilkinson mourned in his 1978 Epitaph for the Elm are all around me. It’s as if I’ve become a traveller in time. There are whole rows of huge hedgerow elms, as well as woods thick with leafy, luxuriant examples of all ages.
These remarkable survivors are not, however, English elms—they’re small-leaved elms, sometimes known as East Anglian elms. There are believed to be at least four subspecies, which rather complicates the Latin names attached to them. Ulmus minor appears to be the favourite, but this is likely to spark heated debate among elm buffs.
Denne historien er fra September 18, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 18, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
