SPECIAL BRANCHES
National Trust gardens and landscapes represent more than 400 years of horticultural history and tradition. However, they have changed in response to the fashions and fortunes of the day.
One feature that tells this story of change, is the tree.
50 Great Trees of the National Trust is a beautifully illustrated new book that celebrates these trees, many of which are connected to notable moments in our history – such as the apple tree that inspired Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire.
Trees inspired Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton to create some of the finest landscapes at Croome in Worcestershire, Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire and Sheringham Park in Norfolk. Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, is home to the longest avenue of lime trees in Europe. And at Calke Abbey in Derbyshire you’ll find a 1,000-year-old relic of ancient wood pasture. Look out for these old beauties, as well as newly planted trees, like the 85,000 trees at Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, where the story continues...