Elm coffer

[Spectrum]

I have just bought an old wooden coffer from a farm sale which was so covered in grime, it was impossible to identify the timber it was made from. I think it must have been confined to an outhouse for years. Now i have it home and have managed to clean off the surface dirt, the distinctive wide grain of elm emerged in all its beauty. I was struck by the width of the unjoined timber and the beauty of the grain, which I have seen repeated in the seats of a number of chairs I have. What a loss it is to the production of furniture that we no longer have available to us the vast amounts of timber from such elegant trees. They are still struggling to reach any degree of height in my area. I wonder what the future brings.....

[Dorts]

It was the most durable of timber. Much used for planking on small bridges, wooden wheelbarrows and of course - coffins among others.
They were iconic trees of the rural scene as epitomised in the paintings of Constable.
There will always be Elms in our hedgerows, but as soon as they form a good thick bark the beetles will attack and kill of the larger trees. Maybe a return to very cold winters may help. Who knows.
Dorts.

[Spectrum]

Interestingly, a tv programme yesterday was saying that one of the ways to stop the fungus spreading from tree to tree is to cut the sucker roots which link them.
I live close to Constable country! I notice in Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica that some of the trees he painted are in fact black poplar and some still exist there! I must go and have a look