400-year-old elm splits in storms

THE oldest elm tree in Britain has split in two after being battered by wind and rain.

The 400-year- old giant, pictured, came down in Preston Park, Brighton.

The tree was around 110ft tall, and is one of a pair – known as the ‘Preston Twins’ – which escaped the Dutch Elm Disease, a fungus that decimated the tree population.

They are thought to have been planted in around 1613, when Shakespeare’s plays were first being performed and four years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America. They are the oldest pair of British elms in the world.

Peter Bourne, curator of the National Elm Collection, said: ‘It is sad but the tree was hollow and basically rotten.

‘Hopefully, given some care and luck, it will regrow over the next 20-30 years.

‘The same thing happened to its twin standing alongside it in 1987 and that eventually grew back. It just takes time.’