Growing your own buildings
I used to smile at Arthur Mee, the author of a series of mid-20th century county guides called ‘The King’s England’ who, whenever he encountered an unusually large tree, recorded its girth measurement for his readers. I imagined him whipping out his tape measure with glee and chuckling over the figures, like a trainspotter or a twitcher or the composer Anton Bruckner, who liked obsessively to count the leaves on trees.
And then today I encountered this magnificent specimen, and began to think that perhaps Mee had a point. It’s the yew tree next to the parish church at Much Marcle, Herefordshire, and its hollow trunk has enough space inside for three benches. I began to wonder whether, if we could grow buildings, they would look like this. And I began to wonder too just how big this monster is. I do not travel with a tape measure, but a notice in the church porch enlightened me. When the girth of the trunk was measured in 2006, it was found to be 30 ft 11 ins. What’s more the notice goes on to say that the best estimate of the tree’s age is 1,500 years. In other words, it was planted in around the year 500, about 90 years after the Romans pulled out of Britain, and around the time that the Britons (led, according to some, by the legendary King Arthur) were said to be beating the stuffing out of Saxon invaders at the Battle of Mons Badonicus. So this tree has been here longer than any extant standing English building, Roman ruins excepted, and its spreading branches are still pushing out abundant greenery. They way it has, as it were, invited human shelterers inside its trunk while also continuing its vigorous growth is admirable, and rather humbling.
I’ve got a good long surveyor’s tape in the shed somewhere. Perhaps now I’ll keep it in the boot of the car…
The yew tree, almost completely hiding the spacious nave of Much Marcle church
11 comments:
I wonder if, at some future time, growing one's own building might be feasible. I think you would need to be very patient while waiting for a yew tree to do it's thing.
Bamboo would be a possibility as it's one of the world's quickest growing plants.
Then you'd have to start a 'Chinese Buildings' blog!
Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Thank you, Bazza. Bamboo might be the thing!
Certainly, this tree puts we mortals into the proper perspective. We all need this once in a while!
Judith: How true. A living thing as amazing in its way as any of the superlatives of the natural world (cheetahs, great whales, whatever).
Willow is also good
http://www.windrushwillow.com/graphics/living_willow/eliptical_arbour.jpg
Is that the same Arthur Mee who published the Children's Encyclopaedia?
Expat: Yes, willow is good - thanks for the link.
Yes, it's the same Arthur Mee. He was very industrious and edited or wrote various other publications for Harmsworth's Amalgamated Press too. His books must have been printed in large numbers and can still be found in many secondhand bookstores.
not only a great tree, but a great village name too!
Worm: The name is great, isn't it? Marcle comes from the Old English mearc (boundary, as in the Welsh Marches) and leah (clearing); so, a clearing on a boundary. Much just means great. There you go: etymology at no extra cost.
Thanks for this article, good to read on local history.
Was brought up on Arthur Mee's England books as parents had copies for Hampshire, where we lived, and Norfolk where they had lived previously. Any trips to unknown places were checked in the book.
In recent years we have acquired a number of other volumes through charity shops and second hand bookshops. I think the most poignant is Warwickshire where many pages of description and photographs are devoted to Coventry before the bombing of course. Shows so much of what was lost. Was reminded of this when visiting Blenheim Palace this week. They have a John Piper exhibition on at present. He visited Coventry the morning after the bombing and hi written description is as dramatic as the image of the cathedral he produced for a postcard issued shortly afterwards.
Ann
Ann: Thanks for your comment. I too was brought up on two Arthur Mee volumes that related to family abodes (Lincolnshire and Gloucestershire). There must have been thousands of households that had just one or two volumes.
The Piper picture of the ruined Coventry Cathedral is very powerful - so are his images of bombed Bath and Bristol. He rose well to these sad occasions.
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