I am not sure how old it was but it certainly predated the property by some considerable period. Well before the residential estate was developed it will have stood on its own on the headland between farmer's fields and at some distance from the town which had gradually encroached with an expanding population.
It was a typical example of the species.
A broad, rough bark trunk of 3 to 4 metre girth supported a crown and strong boughs which towered above the roof height of the house and in season supporting and sustaining a vast, billowy canopy of green, healthy leaves.
For all of that majesty it was menacing and frightening in a full blown storm and yet everyone's friend in casting a cooling shadow on the hottest days of the summer.
The first signs of Dutch Elm Disease on our tree were quite subtle.
A yellowish tint could be seen in the foliage and a gradual thinning out of the leaves made the tree look frail and vulnerable.
It was when the largest of the branches began to systematically fall off and crash to the ground, even in the stillest of air conditions, that we knew that something drastic had to be done to primarily put our Elm out of its pain and misery but also to save ourselves from serious injury.
We began to see and hear in the media about the devastating disease which in a relatively short time killed around three quarters of the twenty million trees throughout the UK as well as having a similarly disastrous impact on stocks in France, Canada and North America.
The disease affecting Elms had been studied in Holland in the early years of the twentieth century but the initial strains were curable and many affected trees recovered fully.
The 1970's version, it soon became apparent, was much more potent and seemingly untreatable with insecticide or even Old Wives remedies such as hammering in copper nails being wholly ineffective.
The deadly virus came from a fungus, itself spread by winged adult beetles which were particularly active in their flight patterns in a succession of dry, hot months in the period 1970 to 1975.
I had not realised the iconic status of the Elm in the landscape of many regions in the UK.
It tended to be sidelined compared to the mighty oak whose timbers played an important role in the national history from everyday domestic use to the construction of ships so important to trade and Empire and so assuming an heroic role in the perception of the nation.
The Elm was however just as important and its rapid submission to an insect spread fungus was a reason for distress and sadness amongst the population.
Our beloved elm had to be surgically dismantled in accordance with the instructions of the Local Council and Forestry Commission.
Removal of the bark did allow the residual timber to be safely used. There was no shortage of local residents expressing an interest in taking away logs and boughs for their open fires or the new emerging phenomena of the wood burning appliance which was a major spin off amongst the tragic demise of the species.
As a final act a tractor was drafted in from the open fields beyond our rear garden boundary to heave out the trunk and roots which, already weakened from the fungus, came out very easily to leave a large gaping void in more than one sense of the word.
In the inevitable post-mortem for this national, natural disaster the investigators soon came to focus on a shipment of Rock Elm Logs which had been imported for use by the Royal Navy to a port on the South Coast of England from North America.
The new virulent strain of the fungus was found amongst the logs and was regarded to be the source of the outbreak. Ironically it appears that the fungus, initially exported in diseased timbers to the North American continent from Europe had now returned to wreak havoc as though in vindictive revenge.
We had moved away from that house by the late 1970's.
It was a relocation brought about by our Father's work but we had all been affected by the loss of the tree.
As if to acknowledge this none of us offered even a quick look back as we drove out of the street for the last time.
It will have been just too much to see all of the blue sky above the roof of the old place where once had been the huge green, animated canopy of our Elm.
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