The 2003 AGM address. Veteran trees and saproxylic invertebrates at Hylands Park
they can provide a very stable habitat over periods of many hundreds of years, important for the
survival of many plants and animals. A third factor is that as they age, they often develop heart-rot
and dead-wood within the tree itself, whilst the outer shell still lives. This is exploited by saproxylic
invertebrates which would otherwise be hard-pressed to find dead wood, for example in a coppice-
wood where every piece of wood was utilised and the trees felled before maturity.
In wood-pastures too, fallen wood would be collected and used for fuel. This situation is well-
shown in medieval Havering, where numerous grants were made, mainly to religious establishments,
of dead wood for fuel in the 13th century from the park, woodland outside the park and also from
Hainault Forest. In about 1650, when Havering was about to be disparked and sold, its trees were
described thus "being only white-thorn, pollards and old dottrells, fit for firing only, besides what
is marked for the use of the Navy" (i.e. the standard trees for building ships with).
In a deer park of medieval origin (such as Staverton Park in Suffolk, or Weald Park), or indeed an
ancient royal forest with a strong tradition of common wood-cutting rights (such as Epping Forest)
there can usually be found substantial numbers of ancient pollard trees - Staverton Park has some
4,000 in a 200 acre (85ha) park. Hatfield Forest, at 1,000 acres (416 ha), has around 800, whilst
Epping Forest is thought to have 72,000 in 6,000 acres (2,500 ha). Hylands lacking, for example,
the long historic continuity of these sites and also common wood-cutting rights as found in Epping
Forest, has far fewer pollard trees.
In 2003 I surveyed the pollard trees at Hylands and found a total of just 64 individuals of the
following species;
Oak Quercus robur 35
Hornbeam Carpinus betulus 11
Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum 11
Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus 4
Ash Fraxinus excelsior 1
Beech Fagus sylvatica 1 (storm-felled 2001)
Lime Tilia x vulgaris 1
Total: 64 pollards
The Oaks are all boundary pollards from hedgerows incorporated into the park, mainly in the 19th
century. The largest of these trees, also with the largest girth of any tree in the park, is the Great Oak
on Writtle Hills. This tree has a girth of just over 20ft (6.11m) and it significantly pre-dates the
establishment of the park. It may well be over 500 years old, possibly originating in the very late
medieval period. Many of the other pollard Oaks have girths in the range lift to 19ft (3.35m -
5.83m) and most are probably over 300 years old. Most of the pollard oaks are still in good tree
health, though a few have conspicuous Ganoderma bracket fungi and one or two are stag-headed.
The eleven Hornbeam pollards are also mostly on old boundaries - particularly noticeable along
the Lower Belt (the southern boundary of Hylands) and also on the fragment of ancient wood bank
just south of the junction of South Wood with the Tower Belt. The finest Hornbeam pollard is
undoubtedly the great, gnarled, holed, wrinkled old veteran (girth 13' 2" - 4.0m) just west of the
Home Farm plantation. Such a tree, although not particularly large in girth, is probably well over
400 years old.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)