Twisted Trees - What are they?

[Harold Smith]

Can anyone identify this tree for me please. I cannot find anything similar in my copy of the Collins book on trees.







The trees are in playings fields next to a Convent school in Alton, Hampshire.


Harold.

[Meta menardi]

Total punt in the dark, Spanish Chestnut? They certainly twist like that, and the bark looks somewhere right. Don't bet your pension.

[The Woodman]

Meta's Spanish or sweet chestnut looks about right with the twisted bark striations. Castanea sativa There's a long scar visible that might be a lightning strike.

[tigger]

Yep, I'd go for Chestnut as well. Not a native, but a wonderful tree.

Jane

[Harold Smith]

Castanea sativa. Thank you for the information.

Thanks,

Harold.

[The Woodman]

Good part of the world for growing sweet chestnut, Harold, Gloucestershire.
Paid a visit to Huntley Manor Estate a couple of weeks ago to look at some timber I was involved with as a forestry student in the early 1970's. I did a spell in a hut on the Ross road just above the village before the Rest House. It's now gone but we used to make cleft chestnut fencing from trees grown on the estate. I see there's still a good number of compartments with coppiced chestnut growing.