Gravenhurst has few landmarks. Two ancient churches, a charming methodist chapel, a Victorian school house, a village hall. Our river and its bridges are modest in scale, our hills unmountainous. But we do have something that is very much worthy of note, and that’s a tree. If I asked where you’d find ‘here be dragons’ […]
About eighteen months ago I cut two small ash trees down as part of an effort to make some space for our embryonic charcoal business. These had both been planted in our small wood, Bottoms’ Corner, in February 1999, and had reached a diameter of about fifteen centimetres or so. Their absence meant […]
It’s several years since what we are now calling Chalara ash dieback was first talked about as a threat to the UK’s stock of ash, Fraxinus excelsior. I think I first saw it in the flesh two or three years ago and at Bottoms’ Corner, our wood in Gravenhurst, in autumn 2014. It was certainly pretty […]