Sudbury Cemetery - Newton Road (Suffolk)

The Giant Redwood nearest to the entrance of Sudbury cemetery may have been struck by lightning at some stage as it is rather short, but is still growing strong. As is often the way, other branches have taken a swerve upwards to compensate for the loss of the top. The second Giant Redwood is a lovely shape, with branches stretching down to the ground. Unfortunately it has a lot of creeper climbing up the trunk which is spoiling the overall look of the tree. When the photograph was taken as much as possible of the vine was removed, but sadly there was not time to finish the job and so the girth could not be measured. Thanks to Tim who sent us some interesting information about the broken tree, "This Wellingtonia suffered in 2001 during the severe gales that year. The tree as seen is after almost half the tree fell in these gales. I was living in the cemetery lodge (called Flint Lodge) at the time the top of the tree landed some six or eight feet from the house. The main cause was that the core of the tree was rotten my father who was a professional horticulturalist and keen arboriculturalist reckoned it had been struck by lightning and rotted from the ingress of water into the trunk as a result. The Vines exacerbated this situation depriving the tree of some sustenance. By the way, the noise when it fell was enough to waken the dead, but thankfully they slumbered on." We hope this might act as a warning to others about removing that dreaded ivy! Not much can be done about the lightning and strong gales, of course, but glad to hear there were no casulties or damage to the house from the falling part of the tree. It must have been some sight but no doubt happened during the "dead" of night, as seems usual with these kind of events. (nb. Wherever there is a Giant Redwood, it will often be the tallest thing around and will take the full force of any lightning strike, so perhaps those living close by should really be grateful for this!)

Common Names and Latin Name	No.	Latitude and Longitude		OS National Grid	Elevation (above sea-level)	Height	Girth	Date Measured
		WGS84	OSGB36
Giant Redwood, Wellingtonia Sequoiadendron giganteum	1	N52.03905 E0.74029	N52.03859 E0.74202	TL 88044 41394	142ft (43.3m)	11.5m	5.7m	May 2006
	2	N52.03915 E0.73989	N52.03869 E0.74169	TL 88016 41404	141ft (43m)	28m	*	May 2006
Tree No. 2 covered in ivy - could not measure. Tree No. 1 lightning strike Girth was measured at 1.5m from ground.