Hi Michael,
I have not fogotten you nor our memorable trip to visit Hartley Wespall church. I used this church as one of my assignment buildings whilst doing my Master's at the Weald & Downland (Bournemouth University) and I am pleased to report that the west wall has now been repaired and conserved in a most appropriate and sensitive fashion. I shall send you a digi pic of the finished article. Anyone else who wants to see this can email me.
Re your reply to Jim - once again I am overwhealmed by the straightforward common sense approach that you proclaim. When I purchased my woodland I noted on the agents sheet that it contained beech trees and Norwegian spruce. I have yet to find a Norwegian spruce but there are certainly beech trees and 23 other different types of tree thrown in for good measure. I liked your comments about the squirrels and cone piles. I have seen these in our woodland under Douglas fir but rather stupidly never did manage to make the conect that these particlar trees might provide the best source of seed. We tend to view our imported North American squirrels as pests. They don't appear to have many natural predators here and so wreak havoc on beech and sycamore trees by indulging in bark stripping to eat the cambium layer during late spring / early summer. Though this is certainly a very destructive trait of the squirrel it is also in a perverse sort of way nature's solution to our problem of overstocked beech. I have been removing very badly damaged young (40 - 50 years) beech trees and am now able to see that there is actaully quite a quantity of young oak growing in the mix that is now freed up to put on some plastic growth to fill the gaps.
It is difficult for us to state with any degree of certainty about how our land was transformed after the last ice age into what can be seen today. Systematic archeological excavations are now required in London before major construction projects and this is beginning to reveal more about the timber building practices during the Roman occupation era. The best places to find timber building remains appears to be close to the river where the water and heavy clay acts as a preservative but that is a topic for discussion elsewhere on the forum.
Regards
Ken Hume
Last edited by Ken Hume; 01/17/09 10:25 AM.
