A fallen tree and some good intentions

This week we lost one of our trees on the green, blown down by the heavy winds. Now I have rather taken them for granted.

Most were planted not long after the green was returned to the village after nearly a century as the private garden of the Wilton family. Early photographs of the trees soon after the death of the old Queen show them still protected by metal mesh and perhaps no more than 10 feet high. By the middle of the century they had become mature and dominated the green.

In the years since some have been taken down but have been replaced so I guess the same will happen with this one.

And the event got me thinking about trees. Soon after we moved into Scott’s house we cut down the trees in the back garden. Now I never take cutting trees down lightly but these three had been planted too close to the back garden wall and had been neglected for years. All of which had resulted in the three trees pushing the old wall out towards the alley. So sadly all three had to come down, as did the wall.

Later still much the same had to be done to the cherry tree in the front. I guess planted by Joe sometime after he had built the house it too had become old and was in danger so I was told of splitting and falling in to the road.

Last year I finally got round to replacing it, with another morello cherry tree, and for good measure planting some apple trees, an apricot and a Stella cherry in the back. My friend David was a little apprehensive at the number I planned to have but I reasoned as long as I kept an eye on them they should not get out of hand.

And it did seem to me that it was time we did more than just live here, after all I have now been writing about the history of this house for some months under the title of 100 years of one house in Chorlton, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/100-years-of-one-house-in-chorlton-part_29.html and the place has been a part of so many of my family and friends that it should be returned to something like the place Joe and Mary Ann knew.

Pictures; the green soon after the first trees were planted circa 1905 from the collection of Rita Bishop, and the green looking south to the church yard in June 2008 from the collection of Andrew Simpson