I am writing to inform Brighton and Hove residents that I am collecting data concerning the history of elm trees (the ulmus plant family).

One very special site is Hove Recreation Ground which up to recently seemed quite an ordinary sports ground, but in the last five years of my 26 years of researching elm in the area, I have discovered that there are numerous rare elms to be found on the four sides.

Some of these trees are now so rare they could be the only representatives of their kind in the world. I have requested that these trees be propagated and that’s already been looked into.

I would like to know if anyone has anything on the history of Hove Recreation Ground or anything relevant especially to the tree plantings there.

Peter Bourne First Avenue, Hove