Tree surgeons for Helston, the Helford and the Lizard

Helston is a Georgian and Victorian market town on a steep hill down to the Cober, and its trees follow the money of that period: the limes and planes of Coinagehall Street, the mature beeches and cedars around the grand houses at the top of the town and along the Penrose side, and the wooded slopes of the Cober valley running down to Loe Pool. The town centre is a conservation area and many of the larger trees are protected, so the usual check with Cornwall Council comes before any work. The estates around the edge, out towards RNAS Culdrose and along the Porthleven road, have the same overgrown estate planting as Camborne, and the same call for reductions, removals and stump grinding.

The Helford River, with Gweek at its head and the creeks down to Helford Passage, Port Navas and Durgan, is the mildest place in mainland Britain, and the great gardens of Trebah and Glendurgan are only the famous examples of what grows there. Private gardens all along the north and south shores have tree ferns, magnolias, eucalyptus, Chilean pines and enormous Monterey cypresses, planted by Victorian and Edwardian owners and now well over a hundred years old. Working on them means big trees, steep ground down to the water, and access along lanes that were never meant for lorries. The crane is worth its weight here where it can be placed; elsewhere it is rigging and patience.

The oak woods along the creeks, at Frenchman's Creek, Calamansack and Bonallack, are ancient and largely protected. Work in them is about safety over paths and boundaries, and about leaving as much as possible for the wildlife.

South of Helston the Lizard peninsula is a different world. The plateau around Mullion, Ruan Minor, St Keverne and Coverack is flat, exposed to wind from every direction and, over the serpentine rock, thin soiled and wet. Trees are scarce and precious, and the ones that exist are wind pruned sycamores, thorn and willow in the valleys, and the shelter belts of Monterey pine and cypress planted around farms and the old airfield sites. When one of those belts fails it takes a chunk of the shelter with it, and reducing the sail of a belt before it fails, then replanting behind it, is work we advise on for farms across the peninsula.

The valleys down to the coves, at Poldhu, Kynance, Cadgwith and Porthallow, are surprisingly wooded and full of self sown sycamore, willow and elm suckers, and the cottages at the bottom of them get trees down across the lane most winters.

Porthleven faces straight into the south westerlies and has very few trees to worry about; those it has are in the sheltered valley behind the harbour and around the older houses on the Breageside. Along the coast towards Praa Sands and Prussia Cove the gardens of the seaward houses are Monterey pine and evergreen oak country again, big trees on the cliff edge taking the full weather.

Helston is a comfortable drive; the far end of the Lizard is over an hour, and the lanes are slow. We group Lizard jobs together and are honest about travel in the quote. The free tree health check covers TR12 and TR13 and it is worth using before the autumn storms if you have shelter belts or big garden trees.