Question
We have a large English holly and it appears to have some type of disease on the bark.  It is hard to describe but it almost looks like a woodpecker has been at it, however, the marks are all straight across the bark and it continues up the whole trunk of the tree.  In additional the trees is dropping almost all its leaves and berries.  I am not sure if that part may be due to the high winds and cold weather we had this past winter.  

We love our holly tree and would hate to see anything happen to it.  

I hope you will be able to give me any suggestions.

Thanks.

Answer
Sounds like there is two thing going on here. The first is woodpeckers--these are called sap suckers--the bird makes the holes in the bark and a small drop of sap is oozed out--insects come to feed on the sap and the bird returns to eat the insects. They do no harm to the tree.
The other sounds like just winter burn from the low temperature and wind. The holly will recover from this and put out new leaves. There maybe some dieback from the winter injury but I would wait until the tree has leafed out fully and then you can tell if there are any dead branches and just prune these out.