Recording Clare’s trees

You can help with our search to record veteran trees across John Clare Countryside. Langdyke board member  and ecological consultant
Sarah Lambert explains the role you could play in this important project

 

John Clare lived in a landscape rich in old trees. In his writing he refers to ‘huge mossed oaks’ and recounts sheltering from a summer shower in a huge hollow ash tree 

How oft a summer shower hath started me
To seek for shelter in a hollow tree
Old huge ash-dotterel wasted to a shell
Whose vigorous head still grew and flourished well
Where ten might sit upon the battered floor
And still look round discovering room for more

 

More than two hundred years later, the countryside west of Peterborough still has some magnificent old trees –stag-headed oaks line many field boundaries on the clay plateau, while the river valleys support aged pollard willows.

Many of the finest ancient trees are in Milton and Burghley parks; the former contains ancient oaks that might well be five hundred years old, mostly in areas away from public view. 

Sadly, veteran ash trees are much scarcer, though a few exist here and there. The historical ecologist Oliver Rackham said old ash accumulate ecological and cultural value with age: “one 200-year-old ash can be a series of ecosystems for which 10,000 50-year-old ashes are no use at all”.

The 200-year-old’s holes and cracks are invaluable for beetles, birds and bats, its base-rich bark for lichens, mosses and liverworts; it is so packed full of fungi, insects, spiders that it hums with life. 

The best time to spot trees of character is during the winter, when their leaves have dropped. Although we appreciate their cultural, aesthetic and biological value, we don’t have a good idea of where all the remaining significant trees are.

Between December and April, Langdyke Countryside Trust would like to  record the locations of those extraordinary trees that just make you stop and stare, or which are of particular cultural significance within your parish. 

Many will have large trunks, needing at least two people to hug them, but some may be smaller such as veteran hawthorns.  They will usually have a range of features such as hollow trunks, rotten wood, dead and broken branches, peeling bark, nest holes in the trunks and insect exit holes. They may also show signs of past management, such as coppicing, pollarding or former hedge-laying.

While you’re out for walks this winter please photograph and record the locations of any remarkable trees that you see, and share them in the Langdyke Facebook Group.

Locations can be recorded using https://what3words.com/products/what3words-app or by getting an eight-figure grid reference using  https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/gps-os-grid-reference/id993436655  on an iPhone. Some trees will be away from footpaths, but please don’t trespass to get near them – you can use a programme such as https://www.cucaera.co.uk/grp/ to find a grid reference when you return home.

If you wish to record more information about the trees, including species and girth size, that would be great. You can also enter this information into the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ which is still missing many of the old trees in the John Clare Countryside area.

Your information will allow us to plot a map showing the locations of our most significant trees, to help us ensure they’re cared for in the future. We’ll also be able to identify areas where future generations of parkland and hedgerow trees are needed. 

And I’m sure all our members will really enjoy viewing your photographs of these characterful features of our local landscape!

Main picture above this article shows a group of veteran oak tres in Stamford Road Parkland CWS, Marholm.