Back in May, I remarked on the depredations of the chestnut leaf miner.  And the chestnuts have all been a bit of a sorry sight with brown, withered leaves whilst everything else has been in full glory.  However, nature is not without its checks and balances and it is never in the interests of a parasite for the host to die.  There needs to be leaves for the miners to mine next year, after all. Thus the chestnuts continue to grow, if not thrive and even, to produce a crop of conkers so that there will be new young chestnuts for future generations of the little critters.  Here are some pictures of the pavement under one of the badly hit trees.

And here is a selection of conkers I picked up from the same spot.  Maybe not world beaters in a conkers competition but I should think they are good enough to grow.