Redwood World: Hockley - Bullwood Hall (Essex)

Hockley - Bullwood Hall (Essex)

Giant Redwood - June 2026	Giant Redwood - June 2026
Two of the three magnificent Redwood trees at this location suffered a massive lightning strike on night in June 2026. Photographs were taken on a Redwood World inspection two days later, by this time the debris had been moved off the road and one of the trees had been strapped near the top to keep the trunk from splitting further. Lightning strikes are one of the hazards for these trees, being so tall, and this normally results in a singeing of the top two feet of the leader and top branches. This strike was immense, and was enough to blast away at least half of each tree. Some have said that it was fortunate that the debris didn't reach as far as and damage the surrounding houses, but there again, if the trees were not present and taller than the houses, perhaps one of those houses might've been the recipient of the lightning strike. As to the future for these two trees, one of them looks so badly damaged that it may not have enough remaining foliage to survive, however we have seen other examples where the tree that has lost half its size to a lightning strike has recovered and grown multiple new leaders from the remaining upper branches. This example in Purleigh - All Saints Church suffered a similarly powerful strike which demolished the upper half of the tree and yet many years on it is now growing vigorously with its new set of leaders. The only positive outcome from this unfortunate, but thankfully uncommon, event is that anybody wanting Redwood cones (that are normally out of reach) has plenty to choose from among the debris surrounding the trees. Perhaps someone might try to grow a replacement from the seeds!
Giant Redwood cone - June 2026	Giant Redwood - June 2026

Giant Redwood - July 2021

Giant Redwood - January 2004

Giant Redwood - December 2003

Original text written in 2003:
There are three Wellingtonia at Bullwood Hall, two being quite tall, one being a little shorter and more rounded on top - perhaps as a result of a lightning strike. They are visible on the horizon from several places in Rayleigh (a town nearby), especially from Queens Road.

The Bullwood Estate was built on land sold in 1894 by Mr. Offin of Turrett House, Hockley and the original Bullwood Hall House is a three storey "locally listed" building (Local List SPD, adopted 2013) built at the end of the 19th century.

The estate was purchased in 1955 by the Prison Commissioners and a prison was built in the grounds which opened as a women's borstal in the 1960's. In 2006 it re-roled to an adult male/young offender prison before closing in March 2013. In 2016 Harrow Estates plc have submitted a planning application for the site which proposes to demolish the existing prison complex of buildings, convert Bullwood Hall and build up to 60 dwellings and change the layout of access via Bullwood Hall Lane to Hockley Road.

As the site was being managed by HM Prison Services the trees were not subject to Tree Preservation Orders. It is not clear at this time which trees will be retained. A tree survey was carried out by Arbtech in November 2014 and received by Rochford District Council in Jun 2015. Among the one hundred and fifty none very diverse trees on the site, a Coast Redwood (Tag No.8) is listed as young, at 6 metres tall, and an "off site tree with no significant defects noted." The three Giant Redwood (Tag Nos. 60, 61 & 62) are listed as mature at 25, 26 and 20 metres tall, and all with "Major deadwood within crown." 61 was said to have a "Hazard beam at 12 metres and 62 is a "single stem to 12 metres which divides to be become approximately 8 condominant stems from this point." Bullwood Hall was a women's prison in 2003 and is accessed off Hockley Road.