3. Dutch Elm Disease

Unless you are over 65 years old and lived in Monkton from the mid 1960’s to the end of the 1970’s you will not know how Dutch Elm Disease changed the scenic aspect of our village. A strain of Dutch Elm Disease first came to Great Britain in 1927 and died out by 1940. It returned in 1967, a different strain, which was both highly contagious and lethal to the English Elm. It is caused by a member of the Sac Fungi and is spread by the Elm Bark Beetles.

Elms were, by far, the most dominant large tree growing in the Parish. There were lines of them growing down each side of the Drove, along to the wood, and most of the wood (the Rookery as it was know). The road down to the sports ground and beyond. The little coppice leading into Docker Hill Farm, which was five or six times bigger than it is today, predominantly Elms. There were lines of them on the marshes near where Wendy’s Cafe’ is, just to name a few areas where they grew. Most of these trees were 2ft to 3ft in diameter 50ft to 70ft tall and 200 to 300 years old. By the end of the 1970’s I would say that 90% of them were destroyed in a vain attempt to stop the disease from spreading.

There are now only a handful of the old Elms left and some of these do not look very healthy. If you want to find some of them there is a group of about 6, a quarter of the way down the Drove on the left-hand side. One next to the footpath just before you get to Millers Lane and one on the left, on the edge of the bank, near where the road is closed at the top of the village. There is no clear explanation as to why these few trees have not also succumbed to the disease.

There is a line of Elm trees from Millers Lane to the Church, of which we were told by Mr Michael Smith of Monkton Court Farm, that they are a different strain of Elm and would not be infected by the disease, and so far, they have not.

The roots of the diseased trees do not die which leads to ‘suckers’ growing from them. These trees usually grow to between 15ft and 30ft then they also fall to the disease, a good example of this along the road leading into the sports ground. Where you find these suckers growing is evidence  that big trees once grew there.

It is now hard to imagine how the Parish looked at the end of the 1970’s. Most of the mature trees left were Ash (now under threat from Ash Dieback) and Sycamore, which do not grow well on the marshes. A lot of the trees now growing down the Drove, along to the wood and the wood itself were planted by Mr Julian Smith after all the Elms were cut down, and in the life span of trees, are still young.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (November 2022).