A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



largest and oldest oaks is 'Jack of the Yat,' standing by the roadside near the sixteenth milestone 

 on the Long Hill. In 1830, it girthed 17 ft. 8f in. at 6ft. up, and in 1881, 18 ft. oj in. 1 Back 

 in the woods behind that stands the ' Crad Oak,' a fine specimen of the sessile oak. Though it 

 seldom is to be found of extraordinarily large dimensions Quercus sessiliflora here forms closer, harder, 

 and firmer timber than Q.pedunculata^ and thrives better than this species in warm, dry, and elevated 

 positions in the forest. Outside the forest bounds, on purlieu land, stands the ' Newland Oak ' 

 now girthing 43^ ft. 8 Loudon mentions 3 a group of three oaks, probably one of the most remark- 

 able in England on account of the size of the trees : 



At Razies Bottom, near Ashwick [says Professor Burnet], were growing, a few years ago, three 

 fine oaks, called the King, the Queen, and the Duke of Gloucester. The King Oak was 28 ft. 8 in. in 

 circumference at the collar; and about i8ft. as the average girt to the height of 30 ft., where the 

 trunk began to throw out branches. The Queen Oak, which girted 34 ft. at the base, had a clear 

 cylindrical stem of 30 ft. high, and i6ft. in circumference all the way; bearing two tree-like 

 branches, each extending 40 ft. beyond the bole, and girting at the base 8 ft.; containing in all 680 ft. 

 of measurable timber. The Duke of Gloucester had a clear trunk 25 ft. high, averaging 14 ft. in 

 girt. 



The elm here attains its finest development, and with respect to the height, girth, and beauty 

 of the hedgerow and park timber, the elms of Gloucestershire are probably unequalled, and certainly 

 not surpassed, by those of any other county. This fact was long ago noted by Marshall, 4 and it 

 holds good to-day as well as it did about a hundred and twenty years ago : 



The largest Elms we have seen, of the Fine-leaved sort, grow in the Vale of Gloucester. There 

 are several in the parish church of Church-down which girt, at five feet high, from 10 to 12 feet. 

 But the finest Elm in the Vale stands in the road between Cheltenham and Tewkesbury within a few 

 hundred yards of the Boddington Oak. It is known by the name of Piffe's Elm ; and the turnpike 

 gate, the fence belonging to which is fastened at one end to this tree, takes its name from it ; being 

 called ' Piffe's Elm 'Pike.' The smallest girt of this tree, which falls about five feet high, is at present 

 (1783) exactly sixteen feet. At ten feet high it throws out large arms; which have formerly been 

 lopped, but which now are furnished with tree-like shoots, rising, by estimation, to 70 or 80 feet 

 high, with an extent proportionable, exhibiting all together the grandest tree we have seen ; not so 

 much from its present size, as from that fullness of growth and vigour which it now wears. 



The whole of the district to the west and south of Almondsbury abounds in elms of maanifi- 

 cent dimensions and majestic appearance. Many of those on the Over Court, Compton, Ellerton, 

 and Knole estates are remarkably fine. In 1902 trees were measured there girthing up to 19 ft. for 

 elm (on Court Farm, Over), 13 ft. 5 in. for oak (sound trees), and II ft. for ash, while there were 

 also much larger oaks of a purely ornamental character. 



The most interesting tree in that particular district is, perhaps, however, the ' St. Swithin's 

 Oak ' at the top of the hill overlooking the deer-park at Over Court, and near the ancient chapel 

 now forming the gardener's tool-shed at the back of the farmhouse of St. Swithin. It has a girth 

 of 17 ft. 10 in. measured (1901) at 6ft. above ground. It is an old pollard, and has large limbs 

 spreading horizontally from about 10 ft. up the bole. At the base of the hill stands another very 

 large oak of somewhat smaller girth. 



Many of the old trees planted from two to three hundred years ago in Sherborne Park 

 are now fine specimens of arboriculture. They include elms up to 19 ft. (at 3ft. up), beech 

 up to 14^ ft. in girth, and up to over looft. high without a branch for 70 to Soft., cedar of 

 15 \ ft., walnut of 13 ft., great maple of 12 ft. 4 in., yew of 12 ft., and Scots pine of 1 1^ ft. But 

 perhaps the finest yew in the county is one growing in the old woods on the Sedbury Park estate 

 (near Chepstow), which has a girth of 21 ft. 4 in. at 5 ft. above the ground ; its bole is 8 ft. long 

 and its height is 40 ft. 



1 John Smith, On British Oaks, Trans, of Royal Scottish Arborticultural Soc. xiii (1893), 43-4. 



' Mr. Philip Baylis informs us that it is at this date (1906) a fine healthy pollard with a clean bole of 

 some 12 ft. in height, at its base it measures 45 ft. 6 in. in circumference, and at 5 ft. from the ground 

 43 ft. 6 in. It is described in the Tram, of the Woolhtpe Naturalists' Field Club for 1889 p. 339 



5 Arboretum et Fruticctum Britannicum (2nd edit. 1844), iii, 1760. 



4 Planting and Rural Ornament (i 796), ii, 429. It is also mentioned by Loudon, op. cit. iii, 1393. 



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