To Chop Or Not To Chop

I am so pleased I still have this photo taken nearly two years ago of some of the trees on Chaucer Old Park ('Illy 'Oleys") as it shows a splendid example of a Horse Chestnut almost in the centre of the picture.


Since then it has been chopped right back - I think the correct word is pollarded although mutilated is another word that springs to mind - and only the main trunk is still standing. I actually saw the men working on it one day earlier this year and thought they were just pruning it but was shocked to see how severe the cut back was the following day. I guess they know what they are doing as Horse Chestnuts throughout Britain are suffering from attack by insects and bacteria but it will be a long time before this one will be able to put on such a fine display again in autumn even though there are already signs of new growth. There is hope for Horse Chestnut trees though and there is a potential cure which actually treats the symptoms without the need for cropping but sad to say, it has come too late for this particular tree.

Trees, though they are cut and lopped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again. - Pericles (490 BC - 429 BC)