Champion collection
Forestry Commission England’s Westonbirt Arboretum is the nation’s finest set of trees and its lush summer foliage is about to burst into autumn colour.
T he numbers are incredible. The National Arboretum at Westonbirt is home to 2,500 different species of tree from around the world. It houses five national collections – maple, Japanese maple, bladdernut, lime and walnut – and 170 champion trees which are the biggest in Britain, either by height or by girth of trunk. 100 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, which assesses the extinction risk of plants, fungi and animals, can be found here. In total, 15,000 trees grow across these 240 hectares of Gloucestershire.
Westonbirt has three main areas and 17 miles of trail for you to explore. The Old Arboretum has stately avenues, carefully-designed vistas and specimen trees. The Silk Wood is an ancient, seminatural woodland with exotic plantings. In between lie The Downs, a species-rich grassland that’s perfect for a picnic.
Each season has its own trails to take in the highlights of a particular time of year. The 1 ½ -mile Summer Seasonal Trails – one in the Old Arboretum and one in Silk Wood – are open until the end of August and visit some of Westonbirt’s most beautiful sights, including Victory Glade, Lime Avenue and Silk Wood coppice. Look too for the beautiful flowers of the Chinese tulip too, now endangered in its native China.
In September the Autumn Trails open, just as the leaves begin their annual carnival of colour. The maples are the centrepiece of the spectacular display and are best seen along Maple Loop on a trail through Silk Wood, or at Acer Glade on a walk through the Old Arboretum. You can also see vibrant displays of Persian ironwood and hickory trees. Time your visit perfectly by tracking news of the autumn colours on Westonbirt’s website or (from September) calling the Autumn Colour Hotline on 0300 067 5691.
“One of my favourite places during autumn” (says Interpretation Support Officer Susanna Bayliss) “is Loop Walk, in between Lime Avenue and Mitchell Drive. Many people stop at the acers, which are fantastic in all their fiery glory. But head a bit further into the arboretum and you come across a cluster of huge beech trees. Here you can look up towards their tall canopy, as a beautiful golden light dapples down onto the path. There’s nothing like it on a crisp autumn morning.” Free maps for these seasonal trails are available from the Welcome Building, where you can also pick up a copy of ‘The Little Book of Disappearing Trees‘ to guide you to some of the globally-threatened species that grow here, like the Algerian fir, which has only one known population left in the wild at the Djebel Babor Nature Reserve in Algeria.
It was wealthy Victorian landowner, Robert Holford, who first began this
“In September the Autumn Trails open, just as the leaves begin their annual carnival of colour.”
collection at a time of great excitement in the plant world when explorers were bringing exotic species from the farthest reaches of the British Empire. Holford financed expeditions and started the arboretum, adhering to aesthetic principles rather than planting scientifically by species. His son George later expanded Westonbirt across the valley into Silk Wood, planting new species in its ancient woodland and creating drives with verges of ornamental trees. Sir George planted many of the rhododendrons and maples for which Westonbirt is now so famous.
In 1956 it was given to Forestry Commission England, who like the Holfords have completed ambitious plans, including mapping and labelling the collection for the first time, replanting and creating new areas like The Link in Silk Wood.
It began as a rich man’s passion, but it’s now a vital resource for conservation, recreation and education, where people from all over the world come to walk among the beautiful trees of this champion collection. WALK HERE: Turn to Walk 3.