The Great Elm disease struck Wiltshire by the mid-seventies and did have an effect on the Priory Estate. All the elm trees in Gladiator Walk were affected, so were five beautiful forty foot elms on the bank in the main garden by the Ilex tree. A specialist, from Wales had to be called in to fell these trees limb by limb because they could not be felled normally they would have done too much damage to the garden walls and surroundings. The only good to come out of the elm disease was that the fire –places of Chisenbury Priory had burning fuel for years. This was stored in the old barn. The wood was split to the length required and bought up to the wood shed close to the house. The trees in Gladiator’s Wood were replaced in 1976/77 by 600 eight foot chestnuts(four colours). These stand today as magnificent specimens which line Gladiator’s Walk from the Priory Drive to the open field lands.