Cocking Lane Redux: Hardest of All!
The cache, a camo-taped preform tube, is hidden in this fine tree up on the bank towards the end of Cocking Lane, which provides a scenic rural alternative route between Addingham and Silsden avoiding the busy main road.
Hiding of the cache became possible with the 14/2/23 archiving of Yorkshiretaff's Cocking Lane which was hidden on 4/10/11 and had some 190 finds and 4 FPs.
Parking is available roadside adjacent to the cache location.
The gnarled and mighty hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is as tough as they come. Also beautiful and useful, its year-round leaf cover makes it a winter wildlife haven.
This medium-sized, deciduous, broadleaf tree belongs to the birch family Betulaceae and is native to Western Asia, N. Africa and Europe, including southern England, needing a warm climate for good growth.
It is widely planted elsewhere, and naturally found in oak woodland- often coppiced or pollarded. It is an important component of temperate forest ecosystems, providing food and shelter for a variety of wildlife species.
It has pale grey-brown bark with vertical markings, and sometimes a short, twisted trunk which becomes (as here) attractively furrowed with age. It is slow-growing and mature trees have a broad, dense, rounded crown with spreading branches, can reach 30m, with a trunk up to 1m diameter and live for >300 years.
Its dark-green, oval leaves with pointed tips are similar to beech but are smaller and more deeply furrowed. They also have finely toothed instead of wavy edges. They become golden yellow-orange in autumn and most stay on through the winter.
Being monoecious, male and female catkins are found
on the same tree and after wind pollination, the latter develop into clusters of papery, green winged fruits (samaras).
Its pale, creamy white timber with a flecked grain is extremely hard - the hardest wood of any tree in Europe. It is mainly used for furniture, flooring and wood turning, but traditionally the wood was made into ox yokes which were used to join a team of ploughing oxen together. The wooden ‘beam’ would have been attached to their horns which may have contributed to the tree’s name. It’s more likely, however, that the hornbeam is so named due to the hardness of its timber – in old English ‘horn’ means ‘hard’ and ‘beam’ was the name for a tree. Romans used it to make chariots because of the strength of the wood.
Other traditional uses were butchers' chopping blocks, piano hammers, wood screws, coach wheels and cogs for windmills and water mills. It was also coppiced and pollarded for poles. The wood also burns well and makes good firewood and charcoal. A tonic made from hornbeam was said to relieve tiredness and exhaustion, and its leaves were used to stop bleeding and heal wounds.
It is also used in landscaping as an ornamental tree in parks, gardens, and other public spaces, and for hedges and topiary due to its attractive foliage, bark, shape, hardy nature, ability to be pruned and shaped easily. Several cultivars are available. Also, it has an impressive tolerance for urban pollution making it ideal for use in city landscapes.
Like beech, a hornbeam hedge keeps its leaves all year round, providing shelter, roosting, nesting and foraging opportunities for birds and small mammals. It is the food plant for various species of moth caterpillars, including the nut tree tussock. Finches, tits and small mammals eat the seeds in autumn.
See videos here (Our Magical Friend), and here (Facts & ID).
