Park Lane Horse Chestnut Avenue
Horse chestnut is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It was first introduced to the UK from Turkey in the late 16th century and widely planted. Though rarely found in woodland, it is a common sight in parks, gardens, streets and on village greens.
Horse chestnut trees grow to a height of around 40m and can live for up to 300 years. Some time, perhaps in the 1840s, the Rowley family of Abbey Farm planted an avenue of horse chestnut trees. The trees were planted at 20m centres and ran from the Abbey Farm entrance along Park Lane in Long Meadow and then turned to follow the byway to Westwick as far as Meadow Farm. Quite a statement for all to see.
The First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1886 clearly shows this avenue of trees - the 1886 map is held online by the National Library of Scotland at this link.
In May in full bloom this long avenue must have been a magnificent sight, sadly, not one that we can enjoy to the full today. The avenue has already lost almost half its number largely due to the impact of the disease bleeding canker. One of the horse chestnuts in Long Meadow is dying from this cause and, like those that have died already, this will probably be quite a rapid process.
Given the visual and historic importance of the avenue along Park Lane, how to look after the remaining trees and fill the gaps has been under consideration since the community took over Long Meadow. Horse chestnut cannot be used because of the disease risk, so research was required to select one, or more, native tree species that can provide an equivalent dramatic impact in terms of height and/or bloom. An oak or beech would be of similar stature and spread but neither has stunning flowers. A bird cherry puts on a wonderful show in spring and is a large tree but not on the scale of a mature horse chestnut. One can see why Mr Rowley chose the horse chestnut even though he himself could not have lived to see his avenue fully mature.
In 2023 with funding from the Feast we made the first planting of replacement trees kick starting a staged reinstatement programme that will eventually we hope result in an avenue worthy of the original concept .