The original survey of the veteran and notable trees, a significant undertaking, was meticulously carried out by Jacqui Huston over the winter of 2010/2011. There are good reasons for doing this in the winter months: there’s no head-high bracken to fight your way through, fewer brambles to shred your legs, and you can see more of the tree. I’ve been collecting ‘PosNots’ as I call them (possible notable trees) for a couple of years.

From Friends of Markstakes Common

Thirty-four trees were identified in the 2010/2011 survey and subsequently recognised on the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory as ‘notable’ or ‘veteran’. Interestingly, given that Markstakes Common is ‘ancient woodland’, we don’t have any ‘ancient’ trees – more on differentiating between the categories ‘notable, veteran, and ancient’ in a moment. 

This excellent Friends of Markstakes Common map shows where ‘our’ trees are—it’s invaluable for avoiding getting lost too. I also use GPS-based systems such as ‘AllTrails’ (here, overlaying the Friends of Markstakes Common Map) and ‘What3Words’ which identifies a named squared metre, saves and labels your pinned items 

Above: From Friends of Markstakes Common, Allrails and What3Words

According to the Land Registry, Markstakes Common includes the strip of land on the other side of Markstakes Lane and a short piece of verge on either side of the lane towards South Chailey. 

Above. From UK Land Registry and the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory

‘Notable, veteran, and ancient’ are essentially later stages of a tree’s life cycle identified by the tree’s girth, which, we know, is a product of the annual growth rings.

From The Woodland Trust training on Ancient Tree identification

As we can see here, hawthorn and field maple at the bottom of this Woodland Trust table don’t need to be as old in years to be considered veteran or ancient as oak or yew. Girth is just one consideration. Woodland trees are challenged in all kinds of ways that can restrict or retard their growth or accelerate their demise by decay, disease or breakage. This is how the trees might look. 

Above. Ancient Tree Guide (c) The Woodland Trust

While this is a valuable way to understand what is going on in the trunk.

From Treetime (c) Ted Green

This is why having an idea of the degree of hollowing in a trunk helps determine the phase it has entered for that species. 

The term ‘ancient’ is troublesome; on the one hand, it is a noun used to define a rare category – a tree in its final phases of growth, while it is also used as an adjective to describe a set of ‘ancient characteristics’ that a tree in an early, younger stage can acquire such as decaying wood in the crown, dead branches on the ground, hollowing, and epiphytes such as moss, lichens, and ivy on the stems and branches. Disease and fungi are ‘ancient’ indicators, too and have their impacts, as do birds and other animals. 

Therefore, I aim to guide you through the leading causes of change to our trees, using some before-and-after photo comparisons to illustrate the transformations over the past 14 years and some of the changes I’ve observed in the last couple of years. 

We will learn how trees: a) compete for light, the stresses they endure, how different species cope and compete, why location matters, b) the impact of fungi (some damaging and parasitic, some not) and disease c) what the weather can do, the likely impact of d) climate change … and e) animal impacts, particular us rather than deer, or squirrels – the harm, as well as the good that we can do. 

It is worth quickly understanding what is meant by a coppice, pollard, or layered tree, as this often greatly increases a tree’s lifespan.

We’ll be meeting a number of these. A layered tree is something you get in a hedge where a young stem has been cut almost all the way through and bent into a horizontal. 

If you’ve never been to Paris, you must visit the Eiffel Tower, though you don’t have to go up it. If you visit Markstakes Common, you have to see the big oak in the Northern Bracken Field, though you don’t have to climb it. Still, the temptation is understandable. 

This oak pollard (tree 13) (4.05m girth) is mature but not ancient.

The trunk looks like a climbing frame made for a young elephant, but a few twists formed by the tree recovering from breaks when it was younger haven’t yet moved into the hollowing characteristics of an ancient tree. 

From a distance, the canopy looks like a large piece of broccoli. From the air, it simply looks ‘mature’. I have to wonder how aerial photography is going and whether AI will eventually pick out ancient trees rather than humans.

It has found growth challenging given its position on the northern edge of the wood, looking into the Northern Bracken Field. Pictures from 2010/11 show little change since. 

A north-facing branch dropped off earlier last year. Like my hair, the canopy is thinning a bit, but the tree still has the strength to put out and support a vast, long, adventurous branch stretching out beyond its own canopy. It is a woodland tree, that’s all. In a park, it would have that classic ‘oak’ form. 

Oak (tree 14) (4.33m girth)  is another must-see. 

This is another veteran with ancient characteristics—somewhat more challenged and tucked into the wood; it lost the top of a significant stem in early 2022. Like many of the moss-covered oaks, it also has epiphytic ferns growing on it – an ‘ancient’ indicator. 

In summer, this oak, like the other one, appears like broccoli from a distance. It is a mature tree, yes, but ‘ancient’, no. We call it a veteran tree with ‘ancient’ characteristics. 

Then, over to the western boundary and footpath, for two more ‘must see’ trees; I’ve nicknamed one the ‘monster’ beech as it’s bigger than any other. Beech (tree 6) (4.86m girth @1.3m) has shown minimal change since the original survey. 

  Then (December 2010).                            Recently (January 2024) 

The other must-see is our veteran hornbeam pollard (tree 5). (Girth 4.00m @1.5m) 

  Then (December 2010).                            Recently (March 2024) 

A pollard last cut perhaps 200 years ago, the finger and thumb stems, outsized for the trunk, are showing signs of their struggle. 

One huge, long, arching stem that had its leaves touching the ground in a patch of light to the northeast lost its leaves early during the drought, and they haven’t grown back, not a single fresh appearance of buds anywhere along the stem that dried out, broke and is now dropping in bits to the ground. 

Ink Drawing of veteran hornbeam (tree 5)

The two stems that have command of the canopy straight above the tree are the most robust. Each of the others shows signs they are losing the competition for light with neighbouring trees.

The decay in one part of the trunk is fascinating: porcelain mushroom, candle snuff, cinder crust … and dead men’s fingers. As well as slime mould…  

But it is not ‘ancient’. For that, you need age, which in turn is indicated by an even greater girth. 

So, where do we go from here? Where has change been the greatest across our ancient wood?

This is a notable beech (tree 7) (3.4m girth @60cm when standing), described in 2010 as ‘twin stems but one broken @ c. 2 m and decaying with old bracket fungus) now down and decaying.

  December 2010       November 2023 

There is now a thriving patch of decaying wood beneath an open canopy and a spectacular collection of bracket fungus in the still remaining hollow trunk.

 Bracket fungus Ganoderma Australe

We often encounter fungal decay at various stages of advancement on the trees around Markstakes Common. The one shown here is a perennial bracket fungus that causes white heart rot, so it is a parasitic fungus which indicates long-term decay, hollowing and increasing vulnerability to  gravity and windfall. 

I can think of at least four beech trees with the same form of fungal decay present.  

Beech (tree 21) (3.38m @1.5m) December 2010 and January 2023 

Beech (tree 6)  (3.56m @1.5m) December 2010 and January 2023 

Looking at this beech tree you can see that one significant branch has come down to the south west. Closer up you find bracket fungus deep between the buttressing base of this beech, while the companion hornbeam shows signs of Phytophthora Root Rot, where, according to the RHS it ‘kills plants by growing from the roots up through the root crown and into the lower trunk, where it kills the inner bark and causes a browning of the outer layer of sapwood’.

And take a turn around the tree to find other signs of decay, hollowing, and competition with the companion hornbeam. 

Other trees showing advanced stages of decay and hollowing not on the ATI (yet) include a significantly challenged hollowed out beech (girth 2.79m @1.5m). You can see this same bracket fungus high up the trunk. Looking into a hole in the base, I used the flash on my phone to show that it is completely hollow. A bluetit was nesting in it. There is a good deal of dead wood on the ground, as well as other fungi, lichens and moss. 

There’s also a standing, dead and decaying beech by the shallow pond which may look solid for a decade or more but is covered in porcelain mushroom.

Fungal decay is one matter, disease, such as ash dieback is another. 

Tree no.1 on the original survey is an Ash tree. This took me months to get right. There are a good many three stem, two stem and ash with companion ash trees and single, maiden ash trees in this corner of the wood by Furzeley Farm. 

Ash (tree 1) (3-stemmed 3.2m @1.5m) is largely unchanged in 14 years. One of the stems may be showing signs of die-back – a thinning of the canopy. In my exploits shredding my legs and arms on the brambles I’ve stumbled upon five further ash trees, two of which are now on the ATI, one as ‘veteran’, the second as ‘notable’.

One of the originally recognised Ash (tree 24) on the boundary bank in the far southwestern corner. 

Ash (coppiced) Dec 2010 to Jan 2023

Ash dieback has impacted this old tree, weakening a couple of the stems, one of which is decayed and broken, the other thinned in the canopy, while the others appear healthy. I understand that older ash trees have greater resilience. 

Intriguingly the amount of new ash growth, seedlings making an appearance this spring, are so dense in places that they form a carpet quite as remarkable as the bluebells and wood anemones.

Windfall breakages are common place, a two-stem tree down to one, a tree toppled over, even flat on the ground and surviving. And of cousrse the large beech that has been sliced and diced on the central path south. The wood has it all. 

These are the before and after shot of a veteran Beech (tree 9) (3.09m @1.5m) which broke off 3m above the ground and has since, in various ways, begun to grow back, then failed during the drought in 2022, and has been having another, less ambitious go since.  

New shoots had been appearing in a burst of growth on an only surviving piece of branch – these too dried up in 2022 and have not grown back. However, not yet ready to give up, further shoots appeared elsewhere on this branch in 2023. 

Beech (tree 30) is partially down

Hornbeam (tree 23) (2.77m @2.18m) is down but certainly not out … it’s as if where there is any glimmer of light, life will find a way to exploit it. The phoenix tree, one that has fallen and is living on, even thriving, is a common sight across the woods with many far younger trees partially toppled or even flat across the woodland floor, that have since grown a series of vertical poles and look like a section of living fencing.

We’ve seen a tree that was trying to self-layer but failed (hornbeam tree 5); here are two that have succeeded: 

Hornbeams (trees 32 and 33) 

Of the trees that were recognised as notable or veteran in 2010/2011 15 were beech, 12 were hornbeam, 4 were oak and 2 ash, there was also a silver birch and what has only recently been verified as wild cherry. The silver birch, never an old tree, but this one perhaps 150 or so, has barely changed. 

 Silver Birch Dec 2010 to March 2023 

Other species we should take a look at include in turn downy birch (1.83m) (and five new species now verified: field maple, hawthorn, buckthorn, wild apple and holy. 

2010/2011 Survey	2023/2024 Survey
Ash 1, 24Beech 2,4,6,7,9.10,12,16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30, 31Hornbeam 3,5,8,22, 23, 25,26, 27, 29, 32, 33 Oak 11,13, 14,28, Silver Birch 15, Wild Cherry 34  All 34 veteran	Ash +4 A,B,C,DBeech +1 EDowny Birch +1 (and other Birch x4) (Buckthorn +1)(Crab Apple +2)Field Maple +2 Q, RHawthorn +1 SHolly +1 T (and others) Hornbeam +4 F,G, H, IOak +5 J, K, L, M, NWild Cherry +1 P Four veteran, of which two veteran hornbeam, one veteran oak and one veteran ash, otherwise 17 ‘notable’

Field Maple Hawthorn

What is common to the additions to the survey is that they are marginal, and buried behind thickets of holy, brambles and bracken. They are not for the most part ‘Ancient or Veteran’ either, but ‘merely’ ‘notables. 

Holly                                            Wild Cherry

The long strip of wood on the northern side and road verge of Markstakes Lane includes four new additions (two oak, one hornbeam and the oddest of them a bundles, deliberately grown as such or an accident, where two oak trees and five beech trees, or three oak trees and seven beech trees.

It is hard to figure out what is going on, having fused into this merry-go-round hub of a tree collective. 

The other particularly fruitful areas for additions by far have been the various boundary banks, those alongside Starvecrow Wood to Balneath Lane, and the western boundary bank from Furzeley Farm to Caveridge Lane which runs into South Chailey. I know there will be several others to add along the remaining double boundary banks south from Caveridgle Lane towards the open fields of what was Balneath Wood, and probably the eastern boundary bank with Dod’s Wood where I’ve so far picked out one large, toppled holy. 

The downy birch has been on my radar for a year because of its relationship as a companion oak it happened to grow up alongside. It intrigued me as one of possibly a dozen birch (downy or silver, I struggle to identify which) that I felt showed plenty of ‘ancient characteristics’ beyond simply lichens and moss, but also decay from fungi, dead branches and hollowing. 

In this instance I noticed the tree was coming further off centre in February. A lot of rain over many weeks makes the ground here flood – the paths run like woodland streams. With the storms it began to tip further and in two or three shifts gravity took it down to what I imagine to be its lasting resting place. No surprises here, wind and rain has its impacts.

Companion trees are hardly that, whatever they share in the soil by default, like humans in the underground breathing the same air, does not make them companionable, these trees, different species or the same, even between stems of the same tree – compete for light. 

Beech (tree 31) (girth 3.2m @1.5m) with a companion oak and beneath their join canopies, a hornbeam, not entirely dead, but a phoenix tree – as one stem, flat on the ground to the north, has successfully put up a number of vertical rods. 

Beech (tree 10) Several competing stems and decaying companion oak 

Beech pollard (tree 12) Companion oak commanding the centre of the canopy 

There are many trees that are off centre – in a world where gravity matters this matters. A tree topples onto other trees, depending on how much of the root ball is ripped out the tree may survive and thrive or die and decay.

There are falls and breakages throughout the wood as we know. 

And outside the original map which skipped the top slither of Markstakes Common where I surveyed two additional oak, a layered hornbeam and a curious bundle of two (or three oak) and at least five (possibly seven) beech trees.

The main causes of change to the trees

The main causes of change to the trees in an ancient wood include: how the trees compete for light, as individual stems of the same tree can compete with each other, as well as how separate trees of the same or different species compete with each other: disease and fungal invasion which can cause decay in the living cells of the trunk, branches, or leaves. Additionally, the trees can be impacted by more short-term factors, such as wind, rain, and drought (and though I’ve seen no evidence of this in Markstakes Common, lightning strikes, and snow)

Long term impacts include Climate Change (which adds energy to the atmosphere and oceans, allowing weather systems to carry more water, and making storms more severe) … let alone the frequency and intensity of drought … worryingly there is mildew in saplings and mature trees in the Northern Bracken Field which I first noticed in the late summer of the 2022 drought.

It’s also inevitable that we have to note human impact. Markstakes Common wouldn’t exist but for the carelessness or lack of desire by someone to enclose and own the land centuries ago  … pollarding and coppicing shows there was woodland management of sorts in the past. Impacts today come as a result of visitors, not the individual, but our collective number and therefore footfall and what we do. Not owned by Lewes District Council, or East Sussex Council, both nonetheless have or feel they have a role even authority over the management of the land. After that, land use locally, should South Chailey expand substantially, how the paddocks, woods and fields around Markstakes Common are used, and should Markstakes Common become popular for some reason… or a chainsaw in the wrong hands.

What can we do? 

The Woodland Trust, for each of the woods small and large, that they own and manage, there is a short-term, as well as modest 25 year, and 50 year plan. 

Experience from similar areas of exceptional habitat and biodiversity in Sussex suggests that communication and outreach to the immediate community, as well as visitors is important. They need to know that Markstakes Common is unique and requires care. 

As happens now in some woods and parks, to increase the longevity of trees, coppicing and pollarding has been introduced.

Surveys identifying and sharing the nature of Markstakes Common should also raise awareness – whether we do the right thing is another matter.