Drought and deluge

As featured in The Hovarian magazine, October 2025.

In July, the Summer and the sunshine seemed endless, and Three Cornered Copse was baked hard as concrete in one of the warmest seasons for 40 years. But as always in our temperate climate, the rain will always return, and at the time of writing, with considerable intensity.

In August the media carried stories of the “false autumn”. This is the phenomenon where trees and vegetation begin senescence early due to the stress caused by very little rainfall over a period of months. This has been seen in the copse, where the beech trees have turned early and trees that were struggling have fallen further behind. The trees are trying to survive in hostile conditions by conserving water and energy. The trees lose water through their leaves, so they begin to shed early.

Their fruit is produced early too. Blackberries were seen in the copse as early as July this year, and the blackthorn bushes produced an early, bumper crop of sloe berries (but don’t pick them until they are very ripe). The warm Spring helped the fruit-producing plants to yield a significant crop, and apple harvesters are predicting a very good year. Perhaps the season of mellow fruitfulness is coming earlier.

Unfortunately the drought renders trees more susceptible to disease, and restricts their growth. We’ve recently seen the removal of infected elms from the copse: it’s hoped that this limits the spread of the insect-borne fungus to other areas. The contractors are experts in arboriculture, but their presence and their work cause some significant disruption to the wildlife and the ambience of the woods.

The bridle path on the western edge of the copse remains challenging to pass, and Is near the top of our list of Jobs. Our ranger Paul is keen to tackle this, and it remains the responsibility of the local councils to maintain these rights of way. It’s probably impossible for a horseback rider to navigate this path through the copse these days, due to the overhanging branches, but that was the original intention of its designation and the reason for allocating the council to keep it clear.

The Friends of Three Cornered Copse held our AGM in The Poets Ale and Smokehouse in August. Our thanks to them for allowing us to use their room once again. In the past year our membership has increased and our Facebook followers have increased, for which support we are extremely grateful.

Simon Baxendale