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and tend to succumb to drought or high winds. However the tallest native tree in Britain is a beech at 44m [144ft.] found in Newtimber Woods on the Devil’s Dyke estate. Many of our largest trees were elms. These were severely affected by Dutch elm disease in the 1960s. The English elms died but due to thousands of years of hybridisation there is a multitude of clones many of which have a degree of resistance to this disease. Some of these can be found around Eastbourne and Brighton, especially at the university campuses. Oak trees grow well on the Wealden clay soils hence their historic abundance in the forests of the Weald. Kipling referred to the oak trees as “the Sussex weed.” Of the county’s list of 60 ‘big trees’ ten are oaks. In full
Giant redwood
foliage many have an impressive crown, making them a landscape feature as used by Capability Brown at Petworth. They are notable for the ‘thickness’ of the trunk, ranging from 260-320cms. One was named the Queen Elizabeth Oak following a visit in 1591 by the monarch to see this illustrious tree. The trunk is 12.6m in diameter and age estimates vary from 600 to over 1000 years. Conifer trees rarely excite interest and are frequently lumped together as ‘pines’. All of the county’s tallest trees are conifers mainly firs and redwoods. Douglas firs are common on the High Weald growing to around 40m. Nowadays the tallest trees in Britain are the giant redwoods, introduced around the time of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo.
Another innovation was the introduction of species new to Britain such as the North American or the Asiatic maple trees LOCAL COMPANY ESTABLISHED OVER 30 YEARS
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