We had arranged to meet John Plumptre at 09.45 to visit “The Majesty” the largest virgin oak tree in the country. Before we started, John spent time both talking about the family history and about the tree itself. We learned that Majesty was one of, originally, four such oaks planted at the same time, the others – now gone – were Beauty, Staghorn and Stately.
A short walk from our meeting point , passing a splendid Giant Redwood – Sequoiadendron giganteum – we entered a woodland that had in large measure grown around the large estate house that burned down in the 1940’s.
In a semi-clearing in the woodland, in a position that would have been in front of the destroyed building, stood “The Majesty”…and what an appropriate name this tree bears!
Huge does not describe the tree; the girth was last measured in 2022 at 12.3m and this is a national champion. The tree is awe-inspiring; it is largely hollow and has clearly lost any number of boughs during its life, but still bears a beautiful leafy crown and throws – very small – acorns. John knows that Barn Owls have nested in the tree for some years…and who knows what else benefits from the nooks and crannies it offers.
Also of interest was the remaining surviving sweet chestnut trees, planted in the mid-1700’s as an avenue to draw the eye when looking from the main house across the parkland…in fact the “avenue” was a fiction and led nowhere at all in practice.
We admired the gnarly trunks of the two closest trees – and both have girth in excess of 10 metres!
There was some discussion as to why the trees grew so well in this parkland; John suggested it was due to the topsoil 2 metres deep on top of chalk that gave the trees such a friendly environment to grow.
Many thanks to John for hosting us, and for the generous time he allowed us to appreciate the trees in Fredville Park