1. They used hornbeam for butchers’ chopping-blocks, it’s a hard wood.
In the London area hornbeam was used mainly for charcoal burning; it was said that it was almost impossible to find a mature hornbeam tree, they were all coppiced [Sydenham, London, August 2009].

Images: main, planted, Trent Park Cemetery, London Borough of Enfield, August 2015; inset, Strawberry Hill Pond, Epping Forest, Essex, July 2017.