![]() Why would you want to destroy something of value and beauty that belongs to you? The ancient trees all show signs of having been lopped, pollarded and harvested: but they were not felled. ![]() Perhaps what’s more significant is the British history of common land. That’s important, for sure, but it’s also true of the rest of Europe. It can’t just be because we harbour trace memories of the time when trees were sacred. ![]() Over the centuries, there must have been thousands of moments when someone was eyeing up an ancient tree, axe in hand, and yet they decided – once again – to leave it alone, while their European counterparts just started swinging.Īnd this is why, when you walk in the bountiful broadleaf woods of Normandy or Lombardy, you will find you are looking at trees of an invariably uniform age and size, whereas, lurking in the last few woods of Britain – and not just in the woods, but in the fields, hedgerows and car parks – there are giants. ![]() ![]() We have destroyed our forests, while opting to spare a large number of individual trees, most frequently the oaks and the yews. It is a mysterious truth - and one the experts struggle to explain - that Britain has fewer woods than just about any other European country a nd yet it has vastly more ancient trees. ![]()
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