Sweet Chestnuts (Focus - September)

As autumn approaches so trees and shrubs start to bear fruit and nuts. Chestnuts are marvellous in all kinds of recipes or simply roasted. These tasty nuts come from the sweet chestnut tree, a relative of the beech, and not to be confused with the horse chestnut, to which it is only distantly related. The latter is the one with large hand-shaped leaves, made up of up to seven leaflets, and which produces conkers from its showy-white candle-like flowers. The sweet chestnut, in contrast, has single spear-shaped leaves with serrated edges and less showy but often profuse flowers, which insects love. Both chestnut species have spiny cases in which the nuts develop. The spines of the sweet chestnut are more numerous and smaller than those of the horse chestnut.

Both species originate from hotter climates around the Mediterranean and have been introduced to this country. Sweet chestnuts were eaten by the Romans, but it is uncertain if the tree was cultivated here. The ones we can buy in the shops around Christmas are mostly imported. Nonetheless, the numerous small nuts our trees produce provide food for woodland creatures. Sweet chestnut trees only became common in this country in the Middle Ages, when they were exploited for its timber. It grows best in the south and east of England and is particularly well-suited for coppicing. The harvested stems are used for hop poles, furniture, charcoal, and fencing. The strong timber splits easily for use in wonderfully rustic and characterful cleft pale fences associated with Sussex and Kent. Sweet chestnut wood is essential to the construction of the distinctive Sussex trug, or gardening basket.

Sweet chestnuts can live for hundreds of years and grow to a great size. Ancient coppice stools can grow to look more like a small copse. As a maiden tree ages, the bark develops a network of diagonal fissures which spiral around the trunk. This can make them look as if a giant has grabbed the tree and given it a vicious twist. Veteran, stag-headed, specimens can end up contorted into sinister shapes, like the stunted one in the field south of Old Wardour Lake. If you want to see some splendid sweet chestnuts, take a walk up the drive to Stourhead House where there are several ancient monsters with girths of up to 8 metres.

​Andrew Graham