Conking out – a popular pastime of generations
Aug 4 2008 by Liz Hands, The Journal
IT has been a favourite childhood pastime for generations, but now the humble game of conkers could be under threat from a deadly disease.
Almost half the horse chestnut trees in the North East could be infected with bleeding canker, a disease which causes the bark to split and weakens the branches, according to Forestry Commission estimates.
There is no known cure, and infected trees can die within five years.
It takes 25 years for new trees to produce conkers.
Paul Mingart, who organises the Bardon Mill and Roman Empire conker festival in the Tyne Valley, Northumberland, said yesterday: “It’s a big problem in this area. We have a very late harvest anyway, so have had to rely on other people collecting conkers from around the country.
“One year I had to go to Belgium to get conkers for a competition.
“There are a few alternatives, but they’re not the same. Conkers are just perfect – they’re the right size, they gleam, and they’re easier to drill through.”
Two hundred horse chestnut trees in the North East were examined by the Forestry Commission. In rural areas, 46% were infected, and 33% in urban areas.
The disease originated in the Himalayas and probably came to the UK in trees intended for planting. As a result, cases of bleeding canker have risen dramatically over the last five years.
The symptoms of the disease include mis-formed growths, cracks which ooze liquid from the trunks and branches breaking off.
Paul Manson, operations director for tree surgeons Northern Tree Contracting said: “We have seen an increase in cases in recent years.
“In the early stages, we monitor the trees and if any surgery is needed, we do that.”
Roddie Burgess, head of the Forestry Commission’s plant health service, said: “The spread of bleeding canker is much greater than originally thought.”
Thousands of trees have already been felled across the UK for safety reasons, as weakened branches could break and fall.
In the late stages of the disease, the tree becomes covered in a red to black stain. Experts fear the disease could have as big an impact as Dutch Elm disease, which wiped out more than 25 million elm trees in Britain alone.
Each October, Ashton in Northamptonshire plays host to the World Conker Championships.
Last year, the event was won by 36-year-old train driver Ady Hurrell, from Peterborough.
He said: “It’s really important that these trees are looked after so that children in the future can enjoy playing conkers.”
The Forestry Commission is to carry out more research into the disease.
To read the full report on the risk facing the region's conker trees, click here
Conkers facts
Horse chestnut trees were introduced into the UK from the Balkans in the 16th Century, but the first recorded game of conkers was not until 1848.
Before that, ‘conkers’ was played with hazelnuts, cobnuts or snail shells.
Horse chestnuts are eaten by deer and cattle and, in the past, were sometimes ground up as meal to fatten sheep;
In October 2001 Eamonn Dooley, from Ireland, smashed 306 conkers in an hour in a warm-up event for the World Conker Championships;
In 1999 the charity ActionAid applied to patent the game of conkers. It was protesting against companies trying to take out patents on existing crops.
In 2006 Newcastle City Council sent workers to collect conkers so that children did not risk injury by climbing trees.
Disease spreads
FORESTRY Commission researchers looked closely at 11 regions in Britain during their horse chestnut survey.
They found:
Trees with symptoms of bleeding canker were found in all 11 regions.
An average of 49% of the trees inspected displayed symptoms that indicate or might indicate bleeding canker.
There were regional variations in the proportion of trees inspected that displayed symptoms. The South East of England had the highest levels of symptomatic trees (more than 70% of those inspected), but no region had less than 30%.
