Author Archives: A Marshian

Just an old oak tree

Down the lane from the farmyard is a solitary oak tree, several hundred years old.

it’s one of a small handful of old oaks on the estate

There’s another solitary oak in a field nearby

That was once a pair, but its neighbour was cut down and now only the stump remains. You can tell by the tree’s shape that it had a companion as the growth of branches is lopsided.

I work just down the lane from the old one and pass beneath it several times a week. It’s always grown alone, sprouting out of an old hedgerow and next door to an immaculately cared for garden. Its branches aren’t affected by any shade from neighbouring trees.

One morning I was walking to work as the sun rose. It was a beautiful and very cold start to the day and I realised that if I scrambled over the fence I be able to see the sun rise through the branches of the tree.

It was a bit of a struggle as the light icing in the ground hadn’t penetrated deep enough to freeze the soil. The recently harvested field was wet enough for me to sink into but after a bit of plodding I got to just the right spot at just the right moment.

The Book Launch

This coming Saturday sees the launch of the book, Rural Reading. The book itself is a small selection of the almost 1100 articles written for the column in the Evening Post for over 20 years.

To celebrate its publication the author and illustrator will lead a walk from The Christchurch bridge on the north side of the Thames in Christchurch meadows.

Copies of the book will be available to buy, and if you would like you can have them signed on the day. There will also be cake, and other refreshments.

Most importantly though will be the chance to join a group of people and go for a walk around some of the open spaces the author wrote about, the Dannal, View Island, the Mill stream and the Last hope sluice, Kings meadow, Reading’s last Elm, The Coal Woodland, Kings Meadow baths, Kennetmouth and the Horseshoe bridge and of course the River Thames itself.

The Shady Side of Town

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.

12523177_10153471662542428_943876580913340936_n

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.