Many thanks to Martin Sykes for id'ing my problem.

I took a sample down to wisley that am and was astounded to find a gentleman
infront of in the Advice queue, holding bits of holly showing the exact same
symptoms and even more to see him drawing a sketch of his hedge disease
pattern that could have been mine.

I'm in london SW19, he was from Winchester. Now the RHS site says:
"The Society is investigating a recent outbreak of Phytophthora ilicis,
which attacks holly and was formerly known only from a single case in UK.
This species attacks leaves and stems, causing black spots on leaves and
stems and defoliation, but may not be fatal. We would be most interested to
hear from gardeners who have experienced such symptoms."

So just perhaps we are seeing the spread of a wider problem?

Has anyone else on URG experienced or seen defoliating of holly trees/hedges
over the past winter and accelerating over the past few warm dry weeks in
the distinctive inverted "V" shape as shown I the picture link below?



http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile...lly_blight.asp Picture

http://www.treeadviceservice.org.uk/pages/TAShot73.html Description

http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/proje...p#Phytophthora Rhs current
research request

Pk