Twisted beech earns its royal connection

THE Queen’s Ancient Canopy was announced earlier this month.

It’s not a Buckingham Palace garden party gazebo that’s seen better days, but a collection of old trees and areas of woodland – 70 of each – that have been dedicated to Her Majesty to mark her Platinum Jubilee.

Among them is a tree familiar to anyone who has ventured into the wilder parts of Tehidy Country Park in north-west Cornwall – away from the duck pond and cafe and the squirrels who are so tame they tap you on the shoulder and demand you hand over some nuts.

Tehidy’s twisted beech tree has long been bending minds – it has stood for more than 200 years and it has been forgotten how it came to grow as it has.

Exposed roots reach out across the ground like tentacles and the thick, gnarled trunk corkscrews up towards the sky.

Its new royal connection seems appropriate. The tree stands slightly apart from the others around it; beech has been described as the queen of British trees; and not far away, along the northern boundary of the park, other beeches bend low, bowing to their queen.

More likely, these unusual, stooping trees have found a way to thrive while avoiding the wind whipping off the sea, or their growth has been restricted by pollarding.

And while it is tempting to imagine the twisted beech is a fairytale queen turned to bark in a cloud of smoke and swirl of robes by a wicked witch, the truth will be less romantic. It may have been trained to grow in that fashion or it could be the result of a constant struggle with other trees to get the best of the sunlight.

Exactly what the Ancient Canopy status means for the tree and our real-life Queen isn’t clear.

Her days of claiming exclusive rights to climb it or string up a rope swing are probably over.

But maybe now, after 200 years of initials being carved into its unusual trunk, the only new letters we will see are EIIR.