Introduction
Elms, over many centuries, have been an extremely successful group of trees in Essex, not so
much in ancient woodland but in the hedgerows of rural Essex. In recent years hedgerow
destruction and the notorious Dutch Elm Disease have robbed the county of its finest mature
trees. Those great billowing, majestic trees added much to the distinctive beauty and character
of the Essex landscape.
One of the aims of this booklet has been to provide a permanent photographic record of elms
in the Essex landscape. The photographs (reproduced on pages 68-85) are of some historical
interest, most depict trees that have long since gone. Assuming Dutch Elm Disease is now past
its most virulent phase, it will be another fifty or sixty years at least, before sizeable elms once
again make their brooding presence felt throughout the Essex countryside. The great elms are
gone forever - the pollard English Elm in Waltham Abbey Churchyard and the elm on the green
at Havering-atte-Bower are two examples of which no trace remains. Others, such as the elm
on Great Saling Green, with its girth of over 22 ft., one of the largest elms in Britain, is now
merely a dead decaying stump. It has taken probably in excess of 350 years to produce an elm
this size.
However, all is not lost, elms are very persistent. They are almost impossible to eradicate
from a site and many produce suckers from the roots. Some species such as English Elm are,
as far as I am aware, no longer found in Essex as large mature trees, but they are now abundant
as suckers. Many elms have invaded woods and hedgerows with these suckers. It may be that
as the present suckers mature (or rather are allowed to achieve maturity without being cut down
by elm disease) they will be more frequent in the Essex landscape than in the past. Surprisingly
many mature elms still exist, some have been infected by elm disease but recovered, others seem
not to have been affected at all. Of particular note are the many East Anglian Elms and the
occasional Hybrid Elms.
I have also in this booklet attempted to give a reasonable synthesis of the scattered literature
concerning the elms of Essex. This account owes much to the work of the late R. H. Richens,
who published a paper on Essex elms in 1967, and also to Dr. Oliver Rackham, Research Fellow
of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, who has written much about the ancient-woodland elms of Essex.
Elms are taxonomically a very difficult group: 350 years of botanical research have still not
resolved many of the complex problems presented by elms. Research at the Botany School,
Cambridge by Ms. Joanne Armstrong, under the direction of Mr. Peter Sell, may yet unravel
some of the more intractable problems.
Elms are difficult to identify, particularly now that few mature trees are available. The
suckers of some groups of elms are probably impossible to identify; sucker leaves are invariably
different from those on the mature tree. However, as time goes on these suckers must at some
point, elm disease and other factors permitting, produce an identifiable tree.
I would especially like to thank Essex Field Club members who have contributed their
expertise to this booklet: Rev. David Agassiz (Lepidoptera); Dr. Peter Kirby (Hemiptera); Mr.
John Skinner (Lichens), and Mr. Derek Smith (Diptera).
Note:
1) In the booklet the county of Essex referred to includes metropolitan Essex.
2) I have deposited copies of all the photographs reproduced in this booklet (apart from those
already in other museum collections) in the Essex Field Club archive at the Passmore Edwards
Museum.
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