In the latest in our A-Z series, volunteer archivist Cluny Wells talks trees. 

There are many trees in the gardens of Chiswick House, more than 1,600 altogether. They give colour and shape and habitat to a diverse number of plant and animal species. Each year an independent tree survey is carried out, most need little or no works to be carried out, some routinely and without urgency. A very small number need emergency intervention.

Veteran trees

The gardens hold several veteran trees, described by a recent tree survey as “irreplaceable and among the most valuable with sensitive habitats.” 15 veteran trees are listed of which one was the Indian Bean Tree and the other 14 were all Sweet Chestnuts. It should be noted that “Not all mature trees or those of high habitat interest are veterans.”

Champion trees

The Tree Register of the British Isles (TROBI) has records of 12 Champion Trees within the gardens. These “are individual trees which are important examples of their species because of their large size, great age, rarity or historical significance.” Within this piece I will concentrate on 5 of those Champion Trees: the Cedar of Lebanon, the Tulip Tree, the Ginkgo biloba, the Wollemi Pine, and the Lucombe Oak.

Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani)

Cedars of Lebanon are native to the Himalayas and Mediterranean countries. The mountains of Lebanon were once covered with them, but sadly there are fewer now. These evergreen cedars, with a spicy scent, first came to Britain over 400 years ago, and the oldest planted in the UK was believed to have been in 1646 by Dr Edward Pocock in his rectory in Oxfordshire. The cedars in the gardens were probably transplanted from the Sutton Court Estate when Lord Burlington had acquired part of it and were already semi mature in the 1730s as shown in paintings by Rigaud and Rysbrack.

Tulip Tree (Liriodendrum tulipifera)

The Tulip Tree is a native of Eastern North America and is one of the largest trees to grow there. It is a fast-growing deciduous tree. Even when it grows in Britain it can grow up to 40 metres in height, and in the right conditions it can live for 500 years. It is a tree which is not so good in a small garden as it can provide a lot of shade. It likes well drained, slightly acidic soil and to be fully exposed to the sun just as it stands in the gardens. The Tulip Tree was introduced to Britain in around 1650.

Maidenhair Tree (Gingko biloba)

The Maidenhair Tree is an extremely ancient tree from the Mesozoic Era, so ancient that it is sometimes known as a living fossil. Trees are either male or female, and males have bunches of yellow catkins 2-4cm in length in spring, hardly ever seen in the UK. Female trees have small green flowers, and yellow plum like fruits which ripen in autumn but apparently have an unpleasant aroma. I think our tree in the Italian Garden is probably a male, as I have not noticed any flowers or smelly fruits on it. The delightful fan shaped leaves, turn from green into a lovely yellow in the autumn. The Latin name ‘biloba’ comes from the leaf shape meaning ‘two lobes’. The fruit has a white nut – a delicacy in China. Nowadays Gingkos are very solitary trees, the only one of their species, and they are the only living connection between ferns and conifers.

Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis)

September 1994 was a significant time for the Aboriginal people of Australia, and the wider scientific community, when living examples of the Wollemi Pine were discovered in the Wollemi National Park by David Noble, a Wildlife Officer with NSW Parks. The discovery was confirmed after more investigations. The word Wollemi, from the Darkinjung language means “look around you, keep your eyes open and watch out”, a very apt saying for the work of a Wildlife Officer. This was the first time that the living Wollemi Pine had been made known to Western science. Fossil records show that the Wollemi Pine was once quite common, but it had been believed that it became extinct about two million years ago, until David’s remarkable discovery. There are only around 100 trees living today.

The area known as Wollemi National Park has been deeply significant for Aboriginal people for at least 12,000 years. Evidence of this spiritual connection includes ceremonial grounds, stone arrangements, grinding grooves, scarred trees and rock engravings.

The Wiradjuri, Dharug, Wanaruah and Darkinjung peoples have strong and ongoing cultural and spiritual associations with their traditional lands and waters in this area. In 2005, the discovery of Indigenous rock art dating back 4,000 years revealed an Aboriginal travel route, possibly a Dreaming tract, across what is now the National Park. Around 10 years ago Chiswick House Gardens was fortunate to receive one of these rare specimens.

Lucombe Oak (Quercus x crenata ‘Lucombeana’)

A Lucombe Oak was first spotted in 1762 when William Lucombe noticed that one of the saplings produced from a Turkey Oak acorn he had planted kept its leaves in winter. He later noticed that these features occurred where both its parents a Turkey Oak and a Cork Oak grew near each other. True Lucombe Oaks are clones of the original tree, but the name ‘Lucombe Oak’ is also often used to refer to any Spanish Oak – a natural hybrid between a Turkey Oak and a Cork Oak. The Lucombe Oak is a large semi-evergreen tree developing a deeply furrowed bark when mature. Its leaves are about 12 x 5 cm, pointed in shape and edged with sharp teeth. Recently, in October this year, whilst on a woodland walk being co-led by Rosie Fyles (Head of Gardens) and George Sydenham (Senior Gardener), our attention was drawn to the differing amounts of clear space around Chiswick’s Lucombe oak to the side of the cricket ground, and how space both above and below ground is one of the needs of trees, particularly older trees of note. Work to enable trees to thrive is taking place as part of 2024-5’s ‘Letting the Light In’ project.

‘Letting the Light In’ – a summary of the project

The gardens at Chiswick House are home to two wooded areas, both of which are lovingly looked after by a team of gardeners and volunteers, who regularly undertake work like coppicing, felling small trees and removing scrub, to keep the woodlands healthy. Right now, the woods are overgrown and unbalanced. Some plants have thrived at the expense of other plants, blocking out the light, creating thick, dark foliage with limited value to wildlife, inhibiting struggling trees and destroying the natural variations that would naturally support a full variety of butterflies, beetles, bats, flowers and birds.

We have a range of wildlife already living in our grounds, small mammals, some bat species, woodpeckers and many insects, including varieties of butterflies, beautiful Soldier Beetles, Ladybirds, Stag Beetles and Solitary wasps. Across the next five years and beyond, the work we’re doing on this site will have tangible, visible benefits, for our wildlife, our loyal visitors and our local community, and there will be ongoing opportunities for visitors to find out more, to take part in guided woodland walks, and to get involved themselves as volunteers.

The importance of managing woodland areas in heritage parks like Chiswick was acknowledged as long ago as 2006 by Dr Stewart Harding, Director of The Parks Agency:

Management for public access by selective felling and the creation or maintenance of paths and clearings generally brings gains in increasing the biodiversity and ecological richness of the woodland and has the additional advantage of encouraging managers and the public to consider just what kind of woodland character they want to achieve.

Sources used:

• Collins Tree Guide
• The Language of Trees. Katie Holten
• The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
• Tree Surveys Chiswick Archive
• Response paper to HLF monitors. No.8. Dr Jeremy Ashbee. EH
• Letting the Light in Project, 2024