Putting the Elms Back in Elmstead
and
The Great British Elm Experiment
The English Elm is a truly magnificent tree - tall and elegant. Sadly, all too few of these giants are left, having been decimated by Dutch Elm Disease. By the end of the 1970s some 25 million trees had been lost.
There are still many elms in our hedgerows, and some can be seen in the hedges down Church Road in Elmstead. However, as soon as they grow to ten or fifteen feet high, a special beetle burrows under the bark and brings with it the fungus that grows into the tree's plumbing and suffocates it. The elm quickly dies. As you travel around the area you can see many of these dead elms in the hedgerows.
There are still many elms in our hedgerows, and some can be seen in the hedges down Church Road in Elmstead. However, as soon as they grow to ten or fifteen feet high, a special beetle burrows under the bark and brings with it the fungus that grows into the tree's plumbing and suffocates it. The elm quickly dies. As you travel around the area you can see many of these dead elms in the hedgerows.
Back in 1982, David Shreeve and David Bellamy set up The Conservation Foundation and one of their projects is to introduce Dutch Elm Resistant trees back into our towns and countryside. With Elmstead being 'the place of the elms' it seemed like a fitting idea to get involved. Cuttings from remaining Dutch Elm Resistant trees are taken and then new trees are propagated. Elmstead has bought 48 of these elms (as small whips) and two more 3 metre trees from King & Co in Rayne. The two large elms have been planted on North Green and Elmcroft, with the Elmcroft Elm being planted to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
The trees being planted around Elmstead will be plotted on a map which will be posted on this web site soon - to enable villagers to follow their progress. More information on the Great British Elm Experiment can be found here at The Conservation Foundation.
Our trees will be recorded on a national database and we will monitor their progress twice a year for the next 20 years !! At the bottom of this page are a map and details where the elms are planted.
A huge thanks must go to all the people and organisations who have helped fund the project, including local residents of Elmstead, Elmstead in Bloom, the Parish Council and a tree grant from Tendring District Council.
The trees being planted around Elmstead will be plotted on a map which will be posted on this web site soon - to enable villagers to follow their progress. More information on the Great British Elm Experiment can be found here at The Conservation Foundation.
Our trees will be recorded on a national database and we will monitor their progress twice a year for the next 20 years !! At the bottom of this page are a map and details where the elms are planted.
A huge thanks must go to all the people and organisations who have helped fund the project, including local residents of Elmstead, Elmstead in Bloom, the Parish Council and a tree grant from Tendring District Council.
Is there a Roman connection?
Some time before 100 AD the Romans brought the English Elm to the UK to grow their vines up, a process called "marrying the vine to the elm". It is mentioned in Shakespear's a Comedy of Errors and there are two interesting articles about it - one by the BBC and one by Wikipedia.
Now here's the mystery. Did it all start here? With Roman Colchester being a retirement town, did a Roman Centurion retire to a hill above the town to grow some grapes and his villa become known as "the place of the elms"? It would have been quite a sight seeing elm trees festooned with vines and grapes. Elmstead after all, is on the Roman road from Colchester to Harwich.
Back in the 1950s a Roman vine was found growing in Wrotham, Kent (now known as the Wrotham Pinot) from which many thousands of bottles of wine are made each year in Napa Valley, California. More info can be found here - Roman Grape Vines alive and well.
Some time before 100 AD the Romans brought the English Elm to the UK to grow their vines up, a process called "marrying the vine to the elm". It is mentioned in Shakespear's a Comedy of Errors and there are two interesting articles about it - one by the BBC and one by Wikipedia.
Now here's the mystery. Did it all start here? With Roman Colchester being a retirement town, did a Roman Centurion retire to a hill above the town to grow some grapes and his villa become known as "the place of the elms"? It would have been quite a sight seeing elm trees festooned with vines and grapes. Elmstead after all, is on the Roman road from Colchester to Harwich.
Back in the 1950s a Roman vine was found growing in Wrotham, Kent (now known as the Wrotham Pinot) from which many thousands of bottles of wine are made each year in Napa Valley, California. More info can be found here - Roman Grape Vines alive and well.
"Veni, Vidi, Vici" - I came, I saw, I conquered" - or more accurately, "I came, I saw, I planted elm trees"
Two Romans from the Colchester Re-enactment Society visited Elmstead Primary School to help plant some of the elms on the northern boundary of the cricket field - an 'Auxiliary Signifier' - clothed in a wolf-skin and a retired 'Agrimensor'. A Signifier looked after the money and administration and an Agrimensor was a surveyor.
A clue to the mystery perhaps ??
There are Roman tiles to be found in the ancient Saxon/Norman doorway in Elmstead parish church. Is this a clue that there was a Roman villa or farm nearby?
A Roman history of Elmstead
by Michael Wadham and Bryan Scott
Colonia Claudia Victicensis Camuldunum (Colchester) was established by the Romans in AD43, as a legionary fortress and served as a provincial Roman capital. Despite being attacked and destroyed by Boudicca in AD 61 Colchester has continued to thrive to this present day.
Colchester was a substantial 'colonia' - as evidenced by a temple to the divine Claudius, a unique 'circus' (a chariot racetrack) and defensive walls over 3,000 yards long.
A town of this size would have had a significant impact on the area, including the current adjacent parish of Elmstead, not least having the Roman road to Harwich running through it on which now stands the medieval village of Elmstead Market.
When the Romans arrived in the area the current field system and landscape would have looked very much like today, albeit with more visible field boundaries and probably double the amount of woodland. They would have inherited a farmed landscape shaped much by the activities of the Celtic people, notably the local Trinovantes.
As a Colonia, Colchester was a town for retired (Vetari) - Roman Legionaries, who upon serving their 25 years were given a pension and plot of land. It is quite likely that much of today's Elmstead parish was farmer by retired Roman soldiers and 'Romanized' locals (the confiscation of local lands being part of the reason for Boudicca's ire).
Like many church sites in England, the parish church of St Anne and St Laurence, has probably been the centre of a nucleated settlement dating back to Neolithic times and the presence of Roman tiles in the northern church doorway suggests a local Roman presence.
It is not beyond imagination that the area around the church was once a Roman (or Romano-British) farmstead. An absence of local building stone would suggest that any farmstead would have had a wooden frame with wattle and daub plastered walls, with perhaps only a small temple or bathhouse having a tiled roof. Such a villa farmstead would leave little archaeological evidence.
However, there are local landscape features that support this history. The site also holds the local manor house, is on a high-point (as evidenced by the local telecoms tower), had spring-fed ponds for water and is close to the Ten Penny brook - giving sea access to small flat bottomed boats hauled up and down the river by ropes.
There appears to be a straight road running from the church, through Elmstead Market, Elmstead Heath and Alresford down to the ford at the creek - where a Roman villa has been found. The presence of tesserae and hypocaust tiles there suggest it was 'high status'.
The local Romans and the Celts before them traded internationally and it is possible that goods were imported via Alresford creek to the Roman farmsteads in Elmstead, both along the road and Ten Penny Brook. One famous import was 'Garum', a smelly, but highly sought after' fermented fish sauce' from the Mediterranean.
Not all 'straight' roads are attributable to the Romans, especially the ancient trading routes running inland from the sea. The road leading from Elmstead to the ford at Alresford creek may well be Bronze age in origin, making Church Road over 3,000 years old, and part of an ancient co-axial field boundary system which is still just visible on current day maps. Roman settlers in the Parish of Elmstead would have taken advantage of such a road.
Could it be, that along with 'Garum' and other fineries of the empire, the Romans in the first century AD imported the first English Elm suckers along this road? To grow them as a frame upon which to train their grape vines - the so called "marriage of the vine to the elm" . Could it also be, that up upon this high land, on the way out of Colchester to Harwich, that there was a retired Roman Legionary making wine to supply the ancient colonia of Colchester?
What a sight it would have been upon the horizon - giant elms 30 metres high festooned with grapes - perhaps giving rise to the local name of "the place of the elms" - elm staeda - Elmstead !! Perhaps too, at the crossroads of the Roman road and the ancient Bronze Age trackway, where the King's Arms now stands, is where the local farmer sold his 'Chateau de Elmstead' to thirsty travellers and to honour at a small temple, the Roman Wine God 'baccus'. This little temple may even be the source of the tiles in Elmstead church.
There are Roman tiles to be found in the ancient Saxon/Norman doorway in Elmstead parish church. Is this a clue that there was a Roman villa or farm nearby?
A Roman history of Elmstead
by Michael Wadham and Bryan Scott
Colonia Claudia Victicensis Camuldunum (Colchester) was established by the Romans in AD43, as a legionary fortress and served as a provincial Roman capital. Despite being attacked and destroyed by Boudicca in AD 61 Colchester has continued to thrive to this present day.
Colchester was a substantial 'colonia' - as evidenced by a temple to the divine Claudius, a unique 'circus' (a chariot racetrack) and defensive walls over 3,000 yards long.
A town of this size would have had a significant impact on the area, including the current adjacent parish of Elmstead, not least having the Roman road to Harwich running through it on which now stands the medieval village of Elmstead Market.
When the Romans arrived in the area the current field system and landscape would have looked very much like today, albeit with more visible field boundaries and probably double the amount of woodland. They would have inherited a farmed landscape shaped much by the activities of the Celtic people, notably the local Trinovantes.
As a Colonia, Colchester was a town for retired (Vetari) - Roman Legionaries, who upon serving their 25 years were given a pension and plot of land. It is quite likely that much of today's Elmstead parish was farmer by retired Roman soldiers and 'Romanized' locals (the confiscation of local lands being part of the reason for Boudicca's ire).
Like many church sites in England, the parish church of St Anne and St Laurence, has probably been the centre of a nucleated settlement dating back to Neolithic times and the presence of Roman tiles in the northern church doorway suggests a local Roman presence.
It is not beyond imagination that the area around the church was once a Roman (or Romano-British) farmstead. An absence of local building stone would suggest that any farmstead would have had a wooden frame with wattle and daub plastered walls, with perhaps only a small temple or bathhouse having a tiled roof. Such a villa farmstead would leave little archaeological evidence.
However, there are local landscape features that support this history. The site also holds the local manor house, is on a high-point (as evidenced by the local telecoms tower), had spring-fed ponds for water and is close to the Ten Penny brook - giving sea access to small flat bottomed boats hauled up and down the river by ropes.
There appears to be a straight road running from the church, through Elmstead Market, Elmstead Heath and Alresford down to the ford at the creek - where a Roman villa has been found. The presence of tesserae and hypocaust tiles there suggest it was 'high status'.
The local Romans and the Celts before them traded internationally and it is possible that goods were imported via Alresford creek to the Roman farmsteads in Elmstead, both along the road and Ten Penny Brook. One famous import was 'Garum', a smelly, but highly sought after' fermented fish sauce' from the Mediterranean.
Not all 'straight' roads are attributable to the Romans, especially the ancient trading routes running inland from the sea. The road leading from Elmstead to the ford at Alresford creek may well be Bronze age in origin, making Church Road over 3,000 years old, and part of an ancient co-axial field boundary system which is still just visible on current day maps. Roman settlers in the Parish of Elmstead would have taken advantage of such a road.
Could it be, that along with 'Garum' and other fineries of the empire, the Romans in the first century AD imported the first English Elm suckers along this road? To grow them as a frame upon which to train their grape vines - the so called "marriage of the vine to the elm" . Could it also be, that up upon this high land, on the way out of Colchester to Harwich, that there was a retired Roman Legionary making wine to supply the ancient colonia of Colchester?
What a sight it would have been upon the horizon - giant elms 30 metres high festooned with grapes - perhaps giving rise to the local name of "the place of the elms" - elm staeda - Elmstead !! Perhaps too, at the crossroads of the Roman road and the ancient Bronze Age trackway, where the King's Arms now stands, is where the local farmer sold his 'Chateau de Elmstead' to thirsty travellers and to honour at a small temple, the Roman Wine God 'baccus'. This little temple may even be the source of the tiles in Elmstead church.
The location of the Elmstead Elms (image courtesy of Google Maps)
The 50 Elmsted Elms have been planted around the village to achieve several objectives - first and foremost to "put the elm back into Elmstead". They've also been planted as part of the Great British Elm Experiment run by the Conservation Foundation. Finally, by planting new trees it compensates in part for any that we have to cut down as part of ongoing management.
The 48 'field elm' (Ulmus minor) trees have been sourced from disease-resistant elms in 3 different locations - one in Bedfordshire (Colesden) and two in Cambridgeshire (Keyston and Boxworth). The elms will be logged on a national database and their progress recorded over the next 20 years. The two large elms on North Green and Elmcroft are English Elms (Ulmus procera).
Each of the locations where the elms have been planted has its own merits and the locations are detailed below.
Site No 1: This location is at the very edge of the parish,with 15 elms planted along Carpenter's Lane. The site chosen is along an old hedgeline with some existing mature oaks. The idea behind this site is to create an ancient 'treescape'. Our horizons were once filled with the silhouettes of huge mature elms. This we can no longer see and it is hoped that in 30 or 40 years there will be a nice line of huge elms visible on the horizon as one drives up the hill out of Colchester and along the A133 towards Elmstead Market.
Site No 2: Six elms have been planted along the northern boundary of the cricket field - again amongst some mature oaks. This site was chosen for safe and easy access by the primary school and villagers. This is the best spot to observe how well the three types of elm are growing. Over the years some of the large trees have been lost around the cricket field and it is hoped that the elms will go some way to replacing them.
Site No 3. The suitably named Elm Croft is the location for our 22nd elm. One of two larger 'English Elm' trees that have been planted, with this one being to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Site No 4. North Green is the second sites in the village where a larger disease resistant elm has been planted. It is hoped that in the future a giant elm will be the centre-piece of this location.
Site No 5. Three elms have been tucked away by the horse paddock. This location enables easy access for monitoring the three types of elm and recording their progress for the Great British Elm Experiment.
Site No 6. Two elms have been planted along the driveway of Mr Ian Allston and are visible from the road. As these trees grow this will be another good site to see if the experiment works - if the trees are truly resistant to Dutch Elm Disease.
Site No 7. Twenty of the trees are destined to be planted in Osier Grove, just south of the A120. Despite the name, it was once a copse containing large elms. The whips were too small to be planted in this open location so they have been 'healed in' in a sheltered spot ready for planting next winter when they are stronger. At the time of planting we were worried by the dry weather - somewhat different now after the wettest April on record !!
Site No 8. This site is not on the map. The two remaining elms have been healed-in as 'reserves' to replace any of the others should they die.
The 48 'field elm' (Ulmus minor) trees have been sourced from disease-resistant elms in 3 different locations - one in Bedfordshire (Colesden) and two in Cambridgeshire (Keyston and Boxworth). The elms will be logged on a national database and their progress recorded over the next 20 years. The two large elms on North Green and Elmcroft are English Elms (Ulmus procera).
Each of the locations where the elms have been planted has its own merits and the locations are detailed below.
Site No 1: This location is at the very edge of the parish,with 15 elms planted along Carpenter's Lane. The site chosen is along an old hedgeline with some existing mature oaks. The idea behind this site is to create an ancient 'treescape'. Our horizons were once filled with the silhouettes of huge mature elms. This we can no longer see and it is hoped that in 30 or 40 years there will be a nice line of huge elms visible on the horizon as one drives up the hill out of Colchester and along the A133 towards Elmstead Market.
Site No 2: Six elms have been planted along the northern boundary of the cricket field - again amongst some mature oaks. This site was chosen for safe and easy access by the primary school and villagers. This is the best spot to observe how well the three types of elm are growing. Over the years some of the large trees have been lost around the cricket field and it is hoped that the elms will go some way to replacing them.
Site No 3. The suitably named Elm Croft is the location for our 22nd elm. One of two larger 'English Elm' trees that have been planted, with this one being to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Site No 4. North Green is the second sites in the village where a larger disease resistant elm has been planted. It is hoped that in the future a giant elm will be the centre-piece of this location.
Site No 5. Three elms have been tucked away by the horse paddock. This location enables easy access for monitoring the three types of elm and recording their progress for the Great British Elm Experiment.
Site No 6. Two elms have been planted along the driveway of Mr Ian Allston and are visible from the road. As these trees grow this will be another good site to see if the experiment works - if the trees are truly resistant to Dutch Elm Disease.
Site No 7. Twenty of the trees are destined to be planted in Osier Grove, just south of the A120. Despite the name, it was once a copse containing large elms. The whips were too small to be planted in this open location so they have been 'healed in' in a sheltered spot ready for planting next winter when they are stronger. At the time of planting we were worried by the dry weather - somewhat different now after the wettest April on record !!
Site No 8. This site is not on the map. The two remaining elms have been healed-in as 'reserves' to replace any of the others should they die.
The shock of
Dutch Elm Disease.
This booklet is nearly 35 years old and reports on the activities of the Trees Working Party.
"Dutch Elm Disease has presented the Trees Working Party with their most serious problem. Elms represent over 50% of the tree cover of the Tendring District. More than 2,000 are already dead or dying and it is believed that the remainder are inevitably doomed.
The Working Party were quick to realize the devastating effect that this disaster would have on the north-east Essex landscape. They urged landowners to identify diseased trees, and to cut them down and replace them during the winter.
Their efforts received full support from the news media. During the summer of 1976 the BBC sent a camera team to the area. The Chairman of the Working Party was interviewed and this interview, together with film of diseased trees and of a diseased tree on Council land being cut down and burned, was subsequently transmitted on 'Look East'.
The slight ease of restrictions on local government spending has at last enabled the Council to give some practical encouragement to public-spirited land owners. £10,000 was included in the 1978/79 estimates to enable a bounty of £25 to be paid to land-owners who are prepared to cut down a diseased elm and replace it with a tree of some other, approved species.
Dutch Elm Disease.
This booklet is nearly 35 years old and reports on the activities of the Trees Working Party.
"Dutch Elm Disease has presented the Trees Working Party with their most serious problem. Elms represent over 50% of the tree cover of the Tendring District. More than 2,000 are already dead or dying and it is believed that the remainder are inevitably doomed.
The Working Party were quick to realize the devastating effect that this disaster would have on the north-east Essex landscape. They urged landowners to identify diseased trees, and to cut them down and replace them during the winter.
Their efforts received full support from the news media. During the summer of 1976 the BBC sent a camera team to the area. The Chairman of the Working Party was interviewed and this interview, together with film of diseased trees and of a diseased tree on Council land being cut down and burned, was subsequently transmitted on 'Look East'.
The slight ease of restrictions on local government spending has at last enabled the Council to give some practical encouragement to public-spirited land owners. £10,000 was included in the 1978/79 estimates to enable a bounty of £25 to be paid to land-owners who are prepared to cut down a diseased elm and replace it with a tree of some other, approved species.