It is an extraordinarily beautiful time of year in the park. With the low winter sun the bare trees seem to convey a special grandeur. I wonder what stories they might tell us if they could.
The old oak outside the library dates from about 1850 by its girth. Long before the computer or car or phone, there it sat, feeling the world and the countryside around. Now it is encased in paving. To our eyes it looks in poor shape with its trunk all hollowed out, but this can be quite normal for an old tree. Take a look at the other oaks a little further into the park and you will see the same process beginning in them.
One spot I particularly like at this time of year is that little stretch near Adderly Gate, where the ancient trees and hedgerow combine to host so many little song birds, who are just getting into voice for the coming season. These trees are found on the old maps of the mid-nineteenth century and I guess this is why there are so many birds. I met a long-time resident of the area there the other day and he was telling me that this spot was where the old rickyard was when Les Biggins was the farmer at Dibden Farm. He recalled how the hay was laid to dry for ‘three bells’, which meant three weeks (of Sunday church bells). He also remembered the thirteen milk churns which were put out each day under the Chestnut trees near the Langley.
On Sunday this week, I was pruning the trees in the orchard ready for spring and taking a few of the prunings as scions to graft new apple trees for gardens in Southmead, where I have been involved with a project to grow local food. I guess they may have their own story to tell in a few decades.
Let’s hope for plenty of fruit from our orchard this year. Or as they say in cider-producing regions – Wassail!
Friends of Emersons Green Park 