Held up by a neighbour

Field Note No. 16

Date:  25–28 August 2026

Status: Assessed, and scheduled

The second of three surveys of the trees across the grounds. The third will assess the remaining trees on site.

Colin walked the boundary and assessed almost two hundred trees. Stoke Road came back as the highest priority, due to the volume of traffic it carries.

Fifty-five trees required some form of remedial work. Thirty-one will be felled, of various sizes and species.

Three of those are willows, adjacent to Caistor Lane. One of them, tree seven, has been leaning for some time. On closer inspection, we found it resting against a neighbouring tree, which has been holding it up.

We suspect honey fungus in the roots. Not confirmed.

Tree seven comes down next week, by our own groundsman.

The other willows along Caistor Lane will be re-pollarded rather than felled, cut back hard to ease the weight in the crown. Bare through winter. Reshooting by spring.

Where it is safe to do so, the stems of felled trees will be left as habitat poles, providing deadwood for invertebrates and other wildlife. The trees may be coming down, but they are not done yet.

Our groundsman will continue to keep watch, with a full re-inspection due in two and a half years. Later this year, a specialist will also carry out a Picus sonic tomograph on some of the more uncertain trees, a scan that reads inside a trunk without cutting into it.

Tree seven had a neighbour looking out for it. Not every tree will be so lucky.