RESIDENTS strolling through Home Park, behind Hampton Court Palace, have been shocked to find an avenue of lime trees has disappeared.

This was not a sudden decision by the Palace, who carried out long consultation with experts and local organisations. Owen Jones, Chairman of The Friends of Bushy Park, said: "We’ve known for the last couple of years that this was going to happen.

"Of the 500 odd trees that were in the Long Water avenue only about 15 were originals, the rest were replacements and had got rather tatty. The Palace decided it was best to fell the whole lot and plant new ones.

"We did query this proposal but they explained that in the avenue the trees were so close together a clean sweep was best. It’s always a pity when trees are felled, but our members eventually excepted it was the best thing to do. In ten years it will look fine again, it’s just a shame that for the next ten years it will look very small."

The trees were planted in Home Park in the 1660's and originally intended to be replaced in the early part of the last century because lime trees have a finite life span of 200 to 250 years.

The avenue down Long Water had begun to deteriorate at the beginning of the twentieth century with a large number of trees decaying and dying. Replacement lime trees will be the same type as the originals and cuttings were taken from the root plates of the few remaining original specimens, providing the opportunity to conserve the original clone stock for replanting when other avenues are restored in the future.

A spokesman for the Palace said: "This approach will give historic accuracy and uniformity and allow all the species in the avenue to mature together again and compliment the Long Water once more. It is a method which has been used successfully to restore two other historic avenues within the Hampton Court Estate; the Great Fountain Garden avenue and the Cross avenue; and is therefore a tried and tested method of restoration.

"People may have thought the lime trees looked healthy because they rot from the inside. But when we cut them down they had a very thin layer of bark and were just shattering."

The project is being fully funded through a generous donation from the Gosling Foundation. Investigations are still ongoing and the new tree planting will take place between December 2003 and March next year.

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