Above from left shows: early 20th century with no tree; late 20th century with the fairly new tree; early 21st century pretty much as now
UPDATE - THE reprieve was not that long - the
tree has now gone
A fully mature chestnut at Heydon - about 22-23 metres (70-80ft) tall. The little coloured blob under the branches (left of trunk) is actually a person .
This chestnut, in front of the village hall in Richmond Place is about the same age as the one on the green and looks in better shape
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During Friday's gathering on the green everyone was talking about whether the tree was fit or not. The general view was that it was fine, with a bit of tender loving care. Not what the council's tree specialist says.
But then came the question of size and here we were all at a bit of a loss. Our tree is we reckon about 40 years old and was planted as a sapling in 1977. So were other trees in the village. So LoL took off for Heydon Hall where the park contains many fully mature chestnut trees - of which the one top left is a fine example. Mrs LOL stands under it for scale. It is indeed a whopping great tree. Using a bit of help from our old friend Pythagoras and pacing it out we reckoned it was 22-23 metres tall - about 70 feet old money. That makes it more than twice the size of ours and its girth suggests it is about 100-120 years old. The real shock of course is that it is also about 22-23 metres in circumference - and that would puts its outermost branches over the roadway, the gardens and even over the car park in front of the Fox if ours got that big. |
A young chestnut, a little smaller that ours, between larger specimens
The tree on the green shows the cleft pout in by some unwise pruning a few years back and the effect that may have had on its shape
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