On Sat, 30 Jun 2012 11:01:29 +0000, atticboy68 wrote:

Hi all

Just moved into a new house with quite a nice garden. However, there is
a tree that appears to have some sort of disease which has resulted in
black-ish spot on the leaves, leading them to eventually fall off.

From what I see, it's an anthracnose, a fungal disease, of some sort.
Wet spring where you are? That usually makes it worse.

Seek local advice from a good garden center or plant pathology clinic. Most
anthracnoses are more about appearance than real plant health issues, but
there are times when a regional outbreak can do some real damage. As I'm
probably on the other side of the pond from you (I'm in the PNW US), I
really can't advise you much.

Typical anthracnose diseases:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3048.html
http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/docu..._06-03-11r.pdf