Linda's Wood is ravaged: Sir Paul McCartney's memorial to late wife destroyed by rare tree disease

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Heartbreak at Linda's Wood: Sir Paul McCartney's memorial to late wife destroyed by rare tree disease

Trees were the victim of sudden oak death

Disease is infecting thousands of hectares of forests across the UK

By RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS

PUBLISHED: 11:47 GMT, 1 April 2012

It was meant to be a lasting living memory to Sir Paul McCartney’s late wife, Linda. 

But now great swathes of Linda’s Wood in Somerset have had to be cut down because of a deadly disease that is sweeping the country. 

The trees were victims of Phytophthora ramorum, or sudden oak death, which is infecting thousands of hectares of forests across the UK.

Ravaged: Linda's Wood in Somerset, where all the larch trees have been chopped down because of a deadly disease

It affects larch trees in particular, although it can jump species and is also infecting other trees including the Douglas fir. 

All of the larch trees in the memorial wood have been cut down, leaving expanses of empty land.

The former Beatle planted hundreds of trees in remembrance of Linda when she died of breast cancer in 1998, aged 56. 

The wood borders a 100-acre nature sanctuary called St John’s Wood, which the couple bought together in 1990. 

Memorial: Sir Paul McCartney planted the wood in tribute to his late wife, Linda, who died in 1998

Joe Duckworth of the League Against Cruel Sports, which runs the woodland area, told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Some of them were diseased and it was decided that the larch would be chopped down as a preventative measure.' 

He added that a number of the species are being felled in the area. 

The disease, for which there is no known cure, has destroyed millions of trees in America and is spreading across the UK, possibly after being brought over in imported plants.

Linda’s Wood was dedicated to Linda McCartney in a ceremony in 1998, where children laid posies of flowers and the Salvation Army played music by Wings, the band in which both Paul and Linda were members.  

Working together: Paul and Linda McCartney (top right) were both members of the band Wings

Dedicated: Sir Paul and Linda McCartney in 1982. The couple were married for 29 years

The forest has since been managed by the League Against Cruel Sports, as part of its deer sanctuary. 

It has endured destruction in the past, with vandals causing damage shortly after it was planted, in 2000 and again in 2003 when a quad bike was driven over 40 newly planted trees. 

Paul and Linda were married in 1969 and had three children together: Mary, Stella and James. 

Linda wrote several vegetarian cookbooks, started a successful vegetarian food company and was a professional photographer.