Trees Removed in Bottesford
16 July 2011 by Paul Rhoades
This week has seen the removal of several diseased trees from the avenue in Bulls Field Bottesford. Known locally as "Bullsy" as the field was once used as common ground on which bullocks were grazed, however it is formally called "Avenue Field" due to the avenue of Horse Chestnuts which run down what is now its western boundary, originally forming a pathway to Bottesford Manor house.Unfortunately, earlier in the year three of these trees were diagnosed as suffering from "Bleeding Canker" disease. This is a disease which is becoming wide spread throughout the UK and western Europe and is thought to be caused by either a bacteria or fungal infection of the tree.
Currently there is no known cure for this disease, although there are some trials underway using allicin which is an anti-fungal treatment which has had some success if trees are treated early enough. Bleeding Canker kills the tree by cutting off the water supply to branches, resulting in the wood dying and becoming very brittle.
Badly infected trees need to be removed as branches can
easily break off in high winds, or the tree its self may eventually fall down.This has infected three trees on the avenue, all of which have been felled and removed from the field this week.
You'll see from the photographs of two of the trees we have included that in some cases the whole tree dies as a result of the infection, where as in the first photograph at the top of the article, only one side of the tree seems to have died off so far.
According to the blog of Bottesford Councillor Steve Swift these trees will be replaced by London Plane trees. London Plane's became very popular in Victorian London when they were planted all around the City to help combat the smog and soot produced by the chimney's of the capital.
Growing to approximately 35 meters high they are both structurally and aesthetically a good replacement for the diseased horse chestnuts.
Not only are the Plane trees a good match aesthetically, but their broad leaves and flaking bark are thought to be very effective in terms of capturing carbon and other pollutant air born particles and were indeed the reason why they became so very popular in Victorian London.
There is currently just one London Plane tree on bulls field, this can be found at the junction of the footpath and Beck Lane at the northern edge of the field. The new trees will be planted on the field in the Autumn.
You can read Cllr Swift's blog entry on this using the link below:
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