The Tree Path

"Some localities are defined by their trees ... "

Trees deeply affect the idiom of a place. Some localities are defined by their trees, they may be assemblages of locally typical trees, usually more important to the wild life and the landscape, and they may include trees which carry stories from near and far, some may be really venerable and invoke respect and awe. Trees make places. Places are significant to us because of the detail and variegation woven through the warp of nature and the weft of culture. This is Local Distinctiveness.

Oliver Rackham says:

Every oak or alder planted in Cambridge (traditionally a city of willows, ashes, elms and cherry plums) erodes the difference between Cambridge and other places. Part of the value of the native lime lies in the meaning embodied in its mysterious natural distribution; it is devalued by being made a universal tree.

In south west Gloucestershire the perry pear orchards awake us in spring, as do the wild cherries of the nearby Wye Valley.

DH Lawrence picks up the nuances as he describes his homeplace of Eastwood:

To me it seemed an extremely beautiful countryside, just between the red sandstone and oak trees of Nottingham, and the cold limestone, the ash trees, the stone fences of Derbyshire. 

High London plane trees shade that city's central squares and pace them in age. Bournemouth is notable for its Scots, Maritime and Monterey Pines first planted on the heathland in the 1800s as the Victorian town took shape.

Privet hedges describe the gardens of many early council estates, holly hedges the estate village of Osmaston in Derbyshire.

Sweet Chestnut is happiest in the south east whilst the heartland of the Hornbeam is East Anglia and eastern edges of London.

Pollarded willows march along the rhynes of Somerset, Scots pines in twos and threes mark out old stopping off points for the drovers. 

Pictures:
Top: (left) 'Hampshire Weeds', yew trees near Stockbridge, (right) Damsons along hedgerows in Gloucestershire.
Centre: (left) Gloucestershire perry pear orchards, (right) Bournemouth pines.
Bottom: (left) London plane in Bedford Square, (centre) Painswick yews, Gloucestershire, (right) Pollarded willows in Herefordshire.

Lou Hellman