Bratley Splinter

As if a giant had grasped its trunk and twisted its crown off, this mature Beech is now little more than a splintered stump. Contorted like a cough candy twist and laying on a bed of its own splinters, from a few inches to a few feet, another tree is humbled by the elements, another tree lost from our ancient woodland. In Bratley, a most wonderful wood, all too many have fallen; critically weakened and opened to the elements by the storms of 1987, every year more ancient trees fall.