The ‘Prince Charles 60th Birthday Rowan Tree’ Day
Friday 14th November 2008 (in honour of the Prince’s 60th Birthday, which just happened to be the same day that I filmed my Offas Dyke Ancient Tree hunt with BBC Countryfile for the first time… there were more film pieces in later years as I progressed on my unique walk).
Expecting to be soaked today, we had a really pleasant surprise, with lovely autumnal sunshine bathing the golden canopies of the trees bordering Offas Dyke in the Candy valley near Oswestry
Offas Dyke passing through The Candy valley.
I was out here with Peter Taylor and Rhian Mian from the BBC Countryfile team. I had been chauffer driven in the teams Land Rover and I had the privilege of keeping John Cravens seat warm, perched in the front on the Land Rover.
We started by doing some intro. shots here beside the stream and then made our way up the hill toward Trefonen. Halfway up the hill I spotted a veteran oak, but I would have to re-visit this tree as we moved on to the dyke proper at the top of the hill, Pentre Shannel on the map.
Arriving on location they setup for filming…
Once we were on the dyke into the field we found one of the trees that we were here to verify as it had been recorded previously by Geoff Alpe It is now verified as tree no. 14389.
A little further onto the higher dyke section we did more filming and measuring.
Moving on from here we made our way to somewhere near to the reported Cae Du oak. Tree no. 452 which is a great ancient tree recorded and verified by Shaun Burkey of Shropshire Countryside service.
As I had not previously seen the brilliant tree I was genuinely excited (most unusual for me) and Peter filmed my reactions. We proceeded to view the tree close up with numerous takes and short sound bites regarding the ATH, trees blah blah.
We climbed (very carefully) onto the large burrs and lumps to get some different shots of the tree again with me rabbiting on about something or another. Oh yes, “Come on and join in the ATH everyone is welcome we want as many as possible to get recording…”
BBC Countryfile’s Peter Taylor & Rhian get up close with the 7.18m Cae Du oak
Moving location we arrived at Carreg y Big this time to the north east of Oswestry and a lovely section of the dyke that I had not checked before for trees. Within 200 metres there was a strange apparition poking horizontally out of the side of the dyke. “Looks interesting that” I said to Peter. Him expecting a massive hulking oak he asked “Is that a special tree then”. Well if I am right I think it is a veteran/ancient Rowan.
Getting closer whilst the camera was rolling, I could tell it was well over a metre in girth. I tell him that it looks well over a standard British hug easily. (You know where this is leading don’t you). Yes ok if I must. Hugging the tree confirmed it to be well over 1.5 metres. Measuring confirmed it to be 1.92 metres.
A lovely Rowan specimen. Several takes more and we were done for the day.
Off home in the dark. Hopefully when edited it will be a nice little bit more of publicity for our fantastic ‘hidden gems’ of the countryside. Hope they put my plugs in for Woodland Trust, Ancient Tree Forum and TROBI.
Note! Looking on the ATH website tonight I can see that Geoff Alpe has actually recorded this tree so it is now verified. Tree 14390. I have given it a special name today.
Today the 14th November 2008, Prince Charles’ 60th birthday so there you go a perfect name… The Prince Charles’ 60th birthday Rowan tree.
To see more photos then visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14919622@N02/
Watch out soon for a short vid. Clip on www.youtube.com ‘treehunter’
Note! Jill Butler just happened to be meeting with Prince Charles on the following Monday and she presented him with this short report on my trip and the fact I had named a tree after him in honour of his 60th birthday…he loved it and commented looking at the leaning over ancient tree… “Well is that what people think of me! Ancient and falling over”! … he has a good sense of humour I feel.
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