#572: Natural History Playlist #5: Hedgerow

A lovely song by the progressive rock band: Big Big Train.

The closing track on their 2012 album 'English Electric Part One' which really grew their audience.

Tell me do you know the song of the hedgerow?

I love the repeated refrain at the end of the song, and the brass bands tone...

Song thrush, yellowhammer
Lacewings, ladybirds
Fox earths, rabbit warrens
Badger's sets, partridge nests

Rose hips, haw berries
Hedgerow, dry stone
Dog rose, honeysuckle
Blackbirds, red wing

#132: London Plane

I am fortunate to work in a school whose grounds have some ancient trees. 

The 75-acre campus is home to a wonderful array of trees, including of course the legendary Great London Plane Tree of Ely. 

This, the oldest tree we have, is in the grounds of the Old Palace, Ely.

From the King's Ely website:

Following the ravages of the Civil War, restoration projects in Cambridgeshire included the Bishop’s Palace, and it was following the Palace’s refurbishment in 1674 that the tree was gifted to and planted by the Bishop of Ely at the time, Peter Gunning.

In June 2002 and in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, The Tree Council designated the Great London Plane Tree of Ely as one of the ‘Top 50 British Trees’ – and it even has its place in national heritage.

In 2012, King’s Ely took over custody of the tree and it is thanks to the expertise and care of the school’s Grounds Team, with support from Barcham Trees, based just south of Ely, that the magnificent specimen continues to flourish as the largest and oldest living example of the London Plane Tree in the UK.
In 2013, King’s Ely launched a project with Barcham Trees to take cuttings from the Plane Tree and to nurture and grow them on as a direct strain of the original UK trees. With the support of East Cambridgeshire District Council’s trees officers, the first cuttings were taken in 2014. To everyone’s relief, the cuttings took hold and the young Plane Trees started to grow under the watchful eye of arborists at Barcham Trees.

In October 2018, one of those young Plane Trees was planted in the Old Palace Gardens – not far from its ‘parent’ – and in November 2018, two of the young Plane Trees were delivered to London’s Kew Gardens and Norfolk’s Sandringham Estate. Other cuttings have been planted at Denston Hall in Suffolk, Parham Hall in Suffolk and at the Arboricultural Association in Gloucestershire.
More details on the tree here.

Here's a Big Big Train track with the same name, describing the Thames and the mudlarks.

Image: Old Palace Grounds at King's Ely - Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license