Viva Brighton Issue #58 December 2017

INSIDE LEFT: ELM GROVE, c 1938
.....................................................................................
Did you know that Brighton is seen by arborists as
being the elm capital of England? We live in the
city with the largest collection of mature elms in
the UK, with estimates ranging from 40,000 (Daily
Mail, Aug 2017) to 15,000 (official 2015 figures,
according to Wikipedia).
There are two reasons the trees are so prevalent
here: the city’s isolated position between the sea
and the Downs makes it less prone to invasion by
the bark beetles that spread the disease; and the
authorities and an army of local enthusiasts are
highly active at spotting diseased trees and taking
action to save them from dying. Most of the city’s
elms were planted in Victorian and Edwardian
times: they are hardy trees which can tolerate the
chalky soil and salty air.
Elm Disease (aka Dutch Elm Disease) was
identified in 1921 and spread to England in 1927;
by 1940 it had largely died out. A second, more
deadly, strain arrived in Britain in 1967 and has so
far killed over 25 million trees in the country.
In this picture, from the James Gray collection,
workmen cut down an elm outside Elm Grove
School, around 1938. We can only assume it was
infected by the disease. The tree was one of a
number lining the street, donated by the Earl of
Chichester, and planted in 1892 when this part of
Elm Grove was laid out by Amon Henry Wilds,
which is when it took on its current name. Before
that the road, with few houses either side of it, was
known as ‘the Racecourse road’.
The school, now known as Elm Grove Primary
School, was built in 1893, shortly after the
Education Act in which the government declared
free education was to be universally available
to children. The chopping down of the tree has
created great excitement among this bunch of kids:
a couple are bent down to curiously examine the
process at close hand, another bunch seem to be
playing ‘chopping’ in the background. The little
girl to the left of the picture – the star of the show
– is more aware of the camera. Perhaps she is still
alive today. Alex Leith
Many thanks to the Regency Society for the use
of this picture: you can see the whole of the James
Gray archive at regencysociety-jamesgray.com
....98....