The Preston Twins were a pair of English elm (Ulmus minor 'Atinia') trees that grew in Brighton, England at the northern end of Preston Park. They were planted around 1613 and were "almost certainly" planted as part of a hedgerow. Believed to be among the oldest and largest English elm trees in the world, they reached heights of more than 100 ft (30 m) and widths of 23 ft (7.0 m). An outbreak of Dutch elm disease in England in the late 1960s caused Brighton to enact several measures to protect its 17,000 elm trees, including setting traps for the beetles that spread disease. They also dug trenches between neighboring elms to prevent the disease from passing easily from tree to tree via their root systems. Infected branches were pruned and destroyed in efforts to save trees.