Reading’s trees are an easily overlooked feature of the town. There are a few that the locals seem to know well, in the town centre gardens, the “famous” trees in the Butts.

There are some popular trees, in the Old Cemetery grows a certified favourite, the spectacular weeping Beech, voted as such in an Evening Post poll of readers.

Elsewhere there are parks that have a huge range of lovely trees, many dating back to long before parks were parks, and many planted in more recent times. Nowhere near enough though!

In gardens and along some streets are old trees from old estates, and in some places lovely trees reflect the fashions of the times, the flowering trees of post war housing estates, and the blandness of municipal street tree planting.

This project is about finding them and documenting them, commenting on them and unearthing information about them, and not a little nonsense and speculation.