News

DAMAGED MAIN ENTRANCE GATE

The damaged main entrance gate, a victim of the January gales, has been re-attached safely and the hinges on the other strengthened thanks to welders Peter and Daniel from the local company The Welding Shop .  Normal access to the gardens is now available through the entrance off Church Road.

FLOODING

Heavy rain during the first week of January has led to part of the lawn beyond the lower footpath becoming inaccessible due to flood water from the River Thames.  Some of the trees in that area have water around their bases, notably the Swamp Oaks which are suitably named being able to tolerate saturated soils.

HEALTH CHECK OF THE VENERABLE COPPER BEECH TREE

Our elderly beech tree has recently had a health check using a technique called Sonic Tomography.   Non-invasive sonic tomography detects decay and cavities in standing trees.  The technique measures the velocity of sound waves in wood; differences in velocity can detect areas of healthy and damaged wood.  A series of nails are lightly inserted around the circumference of the tree.  Each nail has a sensor attached to it and is tapped in turn.  The sensors detect the time taken for sound waves to travel from the source to all the other sensors, data is then recorded and interpreted by  an attached computer.  The data showed that the trunk is reasonably sound and healthy for a beech tree of its age with no significant internal cavities or diseased areas to be of concern.