Historic woods that inspired Beatrix Potter and John Constable could be wiped out due to a surge in a disease that affects ash trees.

The National Trust has warned it faces having to chop down a record 40,000 trees nationally infected by ash dieback.

The conservation charity has felled about 4,000 to 5,000 trees annually in recent years because of the fungus.

Dozens of trees will have to be felled this year in Borrowdale in the Lake District, which the artist John Constable travelled to paint.

Elsewhere in the Lake District, sites that inspired the work of Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter, including Troutbeck Farm near Ambleside which she managed in 1923 and High Oxen Fell, near Coniston, are also at risk from ash dieback.

Spring was one of the warmest and driest on record and placed a huge amount of stress on trees, which has left them more susceptible to disease, says the conservation charity.

The national lockdown also meant teams of rangers that would ordinarily have carried out felling and maintenance work to ensure tree safety were unable to do the work. This, says the trust, has created a “perfect storm”, and left rangers playing catch up in terms of tree felling, which is diverting resources from other much-needed conservation work.

Borrowdale and Watendlath are home to an unusually high concentration of veteran ash pollards, some dating back to around 500 to 700 years old.

"They are remarkable in terms of their unusually high numbers but also the fact they are regularly cut by National Trust foresters to maintain an important rural tradition. These trees are also home to important and rare mosses and lichens, which could be lost forever unless they are transplanted to other trees or suitable replacements are found. This landscape as it exists today is likely to be lost forever," adds the trust.

National Trust tree and woodland advisor Luke Barley said: “Ash dieback is a catastrophe for nature. Our landscapes and woodlands are irrevocably changing before our eyes, and this year’s combination of a dry spring and late frost may have dramatically sped up the spread and severity of ash dieback.

“Ash trees like those at Beatrix Potter’s Troutbeck Park Farm are some of our most culturally significant trees and have stood for hundreds of years but will now be lost forever.”

It is expected that felling work will cost the charity – which needs to save around £100million each year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic – millions of pounds this year alone, and they have launched a public fundraising appeal.