Tree expert Adam Hollis, from Devizes, discovered the only recorded mature elm trees left in the county on a routine job in North Wiltshire.

Mr Hollis, a chartered forester, discovered the elms when a local landowner asked him to appraise two large trees next to his house.

Conservationists thought Wiltshire's elm tree population had been wiped out in the last outbreak of Dutch elm disease in the 1960s. But Mr Hollis believes the two 10 metre tall Wych elms escaped the ravages of the disease because of their isolated position on top of a hill.

He said: "This is a wonderful discovery at a time when all our hedgerows elms have started dying back again, and one of which residents in the county can be proud.

"Our hedgerows appear to be locked in a 20 to 30-year cycle of regeneration and affliction and a whole generation have not seen the majestic outline of an elm in full canopy."

Millions of elms died in the 1960s and few elms remain in the UK, apart from a few isolated pockets in Brighton, Cambridge and Aberdeen.

Mr Hollis' company Landmark Trees has been contracted to maintain the elms and he aims to pass on cuttings to naturalist David Bellamy's foundation. which records the location of remaining elms.