Poetic justice as mulberry bush gets new lease of life
A MULBERRY bush said to have inspired the popular nursery rhyme has been cut down this week after it died two years ago – but a thriving clipping from the original has been located.
HMP Wakefield’s 19th-century mulberry bush withered and died in 2017, just after it was shortlisted for Tree of the Year by the Woodland Trust. Prisoners helped cut it down and remove it from the West Yorks jail on Tuesday.
It was considered by many to be the origin of the nursery rhyme Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, said to have been composed by female prisoners to keep their children amused. Now the bush is set to be replaced after an appeal by prison staff led to the discovery of a cutting taken from it 30 years ago.
It was cultivated in the garden of a retired member of staff who has since died. His widow was made aware of the appeal and was “delighted to assist”, a prison spokesman said. Attempts will be made to propagate a new bush.
Tom Wheatley, HMP Wakefield’s governor, said the tree had “been a part of the prison for hundreds of years”.
He said: “The tree was in a really poor state. It was rotten the whole way through but we thought it was fitting to replace it with a cutting from the original tree so that we can keep the mulberry alive at Wakefield prison.”
The prison was originally built as a house of correction in 1594. There are rival interpretations of the rhyme’s provenance, one relating to Britain’s struggling silk industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. But the prison is keen to keep hold of its links to the nursery rhyme. The prison staff canteen is called The Mulberry and the prison crest includes an image of the bush.