Hedge End’s Oak Trees – Part of Our Heritage

With

800 types of oak tree identified throughout the world and 57

different types found in the UK, Hedge End can claim over 20

different varieties that grow in the town.

Hedge

End Tree Warden Andrew Jemmett says, “The most common types found

in Hedge End are the English Oak and Turkish Oak, and we also have

two scarlet oaks. These return to their natural colour in autumn,

rather like a maple tree.”

The

oak is the national tree of England and for centuries the trees were

grown for timber for buildings and ships. In the parkland at Dowds

Farm off Wellstead Way (Tollbar Way) artist Adrian Moakes’

‘Hedgerows and Houses’ – one of the five sculptures

commissioned as part of Eastleigh Borough Council’s Art in the Park

project – commemorates the special place oak trees have in the

history of the farm. (See Hedgeendpeople story, Spring in the

Park at Hedge End’s Dowds Farm.)

Andrew

points out that it’s not only the iconic shape of individual oaks

that help define the scenery of the English countryside – he says

“if you ask a child to draw a tree, it’s the shape of an oak they

produce,” – but because of their height oaks usually form the

tree-line and create the distinctive back-drop to the nation’s

countryside.

It

would therefore be catastrophic if oaks were to disappear and there’s

been much in the news recently about diseases which attack oak trees,

such as Sudden Oak Death.

But

apparently Sudden Oak Death got its name in the USA where it strikes

‘Tanoaks’ which are not true oaks. Here in the UK the disease has

appeared, but in rhododendrons, strawberry bushes and viburnum.

Brett

Athow, Tree Officer at Eastleigh Borough Council, reports,

“Very few of Britain’s native oaks have been infected, because

they appear to be much more resistant to the pathogen than native

American oaks.”

Oak

trees have long been a much loved image symbolising the strength and

endurance of the English people and according to Andrew there are

more preservation orders placed on oaks than on any other tree in the

country.

He

says we can be proud of our oaks in Hedge End.