Sunday at Bill's Mother's: 28th June 2026
Elms of possibility in Nether Edge. Shire Brook wellbeing, waterway wrangling and Secret Seating 20.
Morning. A longer story today, where we learn how the inspiration of the Chelsea Road Elm, felled earlier this month, is helping campaigners and street tree planters strike back against the plague of Dutch Elm Disease.
We also have our brief out there news section, and a new, and baffling, Secret Seating.
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Elms of Possibility
It’s nearly time to look up for one of our rarest butterflies. Nether Edge elm leaves are glowing against the sky, and I’m squinting hopefully against the sunshine with Paul Selby. You do need patience to spot the famous White-letter Hairstreak, he says, moving on to the next tree. “It’s probably a bit early yet anyway.”
We’re on Chelsea Road, yards from the yellow-fenced sawdust grave of one of the country’s most famous elm trees, felled earlier this month. During the street tree protests, the towering Huntingdon Elm on the corner of Chelsea and Union roads was a focal point for campaigners after being threatened by the Amey and Sheffield Council tree felling programme.
Planted in the grand Nether Edge suburb before the world’s first public radio transmissions, the Chelsea Road Elm became a social media influencer and appeared on national TV. It was voted runner up Woodland Trust Tree of the Year for 2016, and even hosted an open top bus tour to inspect its White-letter Hairstreak butterfly colony.
After fighting off the fungal pathogens of Dutch Elm disease several times, the old tree had been dying over the last extreme weather year from the disease that’s killed off over 25 million mature elm trees in the UK since its reemergence in the 1960s.
The felling of the grand old tree is sad, but inevitable, says Paul, as we stroll along Chelsea Road checking a handful of new, disease resistant elms planted over the last few years. I think this is why the veteran street tree campaigner has a smile on his face, after leaving behind the now empty space where the famous Chelsea Elm had watched over the changing fortunes of Nether Edge since Victorian times.
There are now over a hundred new elm trees in this patch, Paul says, and hundreds more across the city, trees selectively bred so they should evade Dutch Elm Disease and grow tall enough to flower and provide homes for White-letter Hairstreaks.
Time now for a tree disease interlude. Fungus and bark beetle specialists, please skip ahead.
Along with the small brown White-letter Hairstreak butterfly (which usually emerges to flutter around the crowns of elm trees in early July in these parts), several native moths and lichens also depend on elms. Early season insects love their February flowers, while birds eat their papery seeds. All this elm ecology has been eaten away by the disease that reappeared here sixty years ago in a more virulent form, after it was first imported to the UK in the 1920s.
Dutch Elm Disease (and yes, there is a tree called a Dutch Elm too, but let’s not go there) is a fungal pathogen first studied and discovered by Dutch scientists a century ago, hence the name. It’s spread here by native Elm Bark Beetles who can get coated in the fungal spores of a diseased tree before emerging to fly off to a new tree, which then gets infected by the fungal passengers of the boring beetles.
The beetles use elms, preferably poorly ones, to lay their eggs, but usually only elms 15-20 feet high, because the bark and branches need to be thick enough for their egg hatcheries.
So even though most of our large veteran elms have died, there are lots of smaller elms of various species hiding in Sheffield’s woods and hedgerows, until they get large enough for a diseased beetle to strike. Occasionally a larger elm will avoid beetles altogether, by hiding among other trees - Elm Bark Beetles seek out their elms by sight and smell, and if they can’t see or smell one, they’ll usually pass on by looking for a more obvious target.
Different elm species have different vulnerabilities. The huge figure 8 shaped English and Field Elms common years ago to southern England were introduced by the Romans or earlier invaders, while the Wych Elm is native to northern England. Pesky beetles don’t like the Wych Elm’s taste so much, so avoid it if they can, but Wych Elms succumb quickly if they do get Dutch Elm Disease.
Meanwhile, scientists have been battling to produce resistant varieties to fight off Dutch Elm Disease, including Wingham and New Horizon Elms. These are the kinds of elms now joining the council’s new planting lists, and appearing around the city at speed.
Paul Selby fronts the ferociously busy Nether Edge & Sharrow Sustainable Transformation group, who work to improve elm populations and increase street tree coverage generally. Thanks to various fundraising wins and careful politicking, householders and organisations can sponsor a new tree on a street or many other green spaces around Sheffield, and in many cases disease resistant elms are suggested as the best option.
The result is a growing new world of elms around Sheffield for all those moths, birds, lichens and White-letter Hairstreak butterflies who need them to survive.
Near the old Nether Edge hospital site, we find Wych Elms in a tiny woodland, and a huge hybrid Sapporo Gold Elm (also fairly disease resistant), with tell tale caterpillar or beetle bite holes. The nearby Wych Elms have been nibbled too. Could these be the marks of this year’s young butterflies?
We arrive in Chelsea Park. There’s another large Wych Elm hiding in a tall belt of trees here, but we also know the council planted two disease-resistant elms in the park over ten years ago.
“But I’ve only ever found this one,” says Paul, looking up at a towering New Horizon Elm by one of the main park pathways. A fine home for a White-letter Hairstreak, surely?
And there, just below the playground, are three huge sections from the trunk of the felled Chelsea Road Elm, left here while the council and local community decide what to do with them.
The tree’s legacy is not just the revitalised elm planting programme, and the public awareness of the once-rare butterflies that have now moved on from its aged branches, says Paul. He explains that the fame of the Chelsea Road Elm, and its complicated story of resistance, biodiversity and history, led to discussions and eventually an agreement not to fell the tree between the street tree protestors and the council, and partners like Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust.
“They realised that they could actually do deals, and both sides stuck to the deal,” says Paul. “And that was the foundation of the wider ceasefire and peace agreement.”
We stroll over and find spider webs and beetle holes and new life taking over the decaying Chelsea Road Elm. And there, just beyond, sheltering in a strip of Chelsea Park woodland, is the second New Horizon Elm planted by the council’s ecologists, years before the fame of the trunks resting below.
“There it is,” said Paul. “We’ve found it,” and he scans the leaves for caterpillar holes or fluttering butterflies.
Nether Edge councillor Dr Ibby Ullah told me he’d been consulting with the council, residents and local groups about what to do with the felled Chelsea Road Elm, and how to commemorate it. Fellow local councillor Maroof Raouf says he hopes the original plaque can be moved to the tree’s current resting place in Chelsea Park for the moment, and adds he’ll ask fellow Nether Edge councillors about cross-party consultations to remember the Chelsea Road elm.
Suggestions include a sculpture or benches in Chelsea Park, making household items like bowls, spoons or chopping boards to be sold for local charities, a memorial bowl made by a local woodworker, using the tree for a children’s play area, or simply planting honeysuckle around the stumps in the park.
Brief Out There News
Broken Blue Loop - a reminder that the public meeting about the missing access paths to the River Don and Sheffield Canal is this Wednesday (1st July) at The Library Café Bar in Attercliffe. Everyone with an interest in Sheffield’s broken Blue Loop path network is invited.
Shire Brook Valley Wellbeing and Bioblitz - there’s a set of new (and free) woodland wellbeing sessions for adults and children at the city’s east side nature reserve, along with story sessions at the visitor centre and this year’s public bioblitz on Thursday 21st July. We’ve a story on the wild successes at the reserve coming up in the next week or two.
Secret Seating 20
Well done to gold medal winner Alan Robinson who quickly spotted SS19 was on the spectacular trail up to Wincobank Hillfort. Today’s challenge, however, is so tricky I’ve included one or two clues for sharp eyed viewers. This is a new seating arrangement, apparently set up earlier this year with a curious view, as you can see. But where is it? Answers in the comments below, as usual.
More What’s On Out There (from Sunday 28th June)
A tiny selection from our (regularly updated) What’s On Out There news and listings post. Full version for full members, preview (& this week) for all at the link above.
Sun 28th - Friends of Whirlow Brook Park - Sounds of Summer concert
Tues 30th - Nature Natter - Heeley Trust sessions in the woods around Gleadless
Thurs 2nd July- SRWT Volunteering - Moss Valley
Sat 4th - Friends of Whirlow Brook Park - Volunteer session
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‘Yellow fenced sawdust grave’ love it
Secret Seat 20 looks over Woodhouse Washlands Nature Reserve off Furnace Lane Woodhouse Mill.