Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Mystery by the River Lea
This isn't technically in Harringay but I'm wondering if there are others who cycle or walk along the River Lea path who might be able to throw some light on this.
This morning I cycled south down my usual delightful route along the River Lea path on my way to work. Nothing untoward. Cycling back home in the late afternoon I got to the boathouse round about here and found an absolutely huge tree had fallen down and blocked the path. It was enormous: lying on its side the trunk was almost as high as my head. It was jutting out into the river and would have destroyed any canal boat unlucky enough to be by the riverbank (though it didn't look like this had happened).
The mystery is how this whopping great tree came to be horizontal in the space of about eight hours, on a day when there wasn't enough wind to blow over a much smaller tree, with no visible cuts that had been made into the trunk and no evidence that any machinery had been used to push it over. It looked like it had been uprooted, but by what and for what reason?
Insights? Conspiracy theories?
This morning I cycled south down my usual delightful route along the River Lea path on my way to work. Nothing untoward. Cycling back home in the late afternoon I got to the boathouse round about here and found an absolutely huge tree had fallen down and blocked the path. It was enormous: lying on its side the trunk was almost as high as my head. It was jutting out into the river and would have destroyed any canal boat unlucky enough to be by the riverbank (though it didn't look like this had happened).
The mystery is how this whopping great tree came to be horizontal in the space of about eight hours, on a day when there wasn't enough wind to blow over a much smaller tree, with no visible cuts that had been made into the trunk and no evidence that any machinery had been used to push it over. It looked like it had been uprooted, but by what and for what reason?
Insights? Conspiracy theories?
Tags for Forum Posts: Lea, River, conspiracy, theories, tree, uprooting
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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It could be those pesky kids but it sounds like a job for Jonathan Creek.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Didn't you have your camera with you?
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Permalink Reply by empyrean_aisles on
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I did kick myself for not taking a photo with my phone at the time. I'll try this evening.
This morning when I rode past someone had already cut through the trunk in order to push it slightly to the side so pedestrians and cycles could get by. There's still a massive chunk of tree in the River Lea, though, and I'm not sure how they'll be able to get it out.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Sometimes old trees just get tired standing around for no reason.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Yes trees do get bored of hanging around & just fall over. Maybe it was diseased within the root system. The other possibly is that someone wanted rid of it and poisoned it which means the tree dies slowly, weakens, then falls one day. Difficult to do this with a big tree though.
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Permalink Reply by alistairj on
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I went past there this morning. Undoubtedly a big tree and quite a lot of it still in the river (causing a slight obstacle to rowers/barges) but the towpath is clear.
My suspicion is disease - a few of the others in the stretch similarly affected.
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Get the Special Branch on to it. Unless of course they're all on annual leaf.
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I guess disease is the most plausible explanation, but it didn't look like it was ailing.
My pictures don't really give a sense of the size, but here they are anyway.
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willow branches always eventually split off and drop. it's natural. it doesn't look natural but it is. this is a pretty old and very diseased tree thats come to the end of it's life cycle. (i went to horticultural college) don't know how it came to be in the water. perhaps it was following a shopping trolley. by the way i used to live on the ferry lane moorings on my trusty cabin cruiser. avast ye swabs ! shiver me timbers keel haul - ye shall kiss the gunners daughter in the morning - pieces of eigh................... (loud thud)
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Permalink Reply by Omotn on
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Not only willows but all trees get old and die, that's why really old trees are so revered. I think tree preservation orders should recognise this.
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No trees behave the way of willows. they don't live very long compared with say, an oak. you are unlikely to see a willow over two hundred. if it's a soft wood, that means the tree grows fast and the grain is thick. if it's a hard wood that means the tree grows slow with thin grain.
willows are a very fast growing tree. they also have a habit of dropping large and major branches. the (big) branche comes away at the bole and slews away.
here is an example of an old english yew. it is actually older than the church it stands next to. - Attachments:
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James, you really have to find a way to trim these down. 3.1MB for something that could be 60kB....
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