Country diary: pines that went to Passchendaele

Milkham Inclosure, New Forest In the wartime effort of 1917 timber from this woodland fell to axes and became the battlefield planks trodden perhaps by the forest dwellers themselves

Today we wander through Milkham's pines in an atmosphere of autumnal tranquillity. During the first world war the scene would have been very different. The ring of axes would have cut through the air as still more trees needed for the war effort were taken down. A few mother trees were spared to provide seedlings for regeneration.

One hundred years ago last week, after appalling cost, the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele, ended. Pictures taken at the time show Australian gunners walking on duckboards across seas of mud, heading for the frontline through stick-like trees. They could have been treading on planks cut from pines that once grew in Milkham. A sombre thought.