122. St Mary’s Plane
Oriental planes, a parent species to the much more common London plane, are well represented in Banbury.
Banbury’s grand neoclassical church of St Mary’s was rebuilt in 1790, a likely planting date for the half dozen astonishing oriental planes that surround it. The six trees represent one of the finest and perhaps oldest groups of the species in Britain or Ireland. Each has taken on a distinct individual character, but the twisting, snake-like tree nearest the portico has the most alluring form.
Species details
Oriental plane
Platanus orientalis
Where to find it
St Mary's Church, Horse Fair, Banbury OX16 0AA
///pine.price.serves | 52.061732, -1.339276
Other oriental planes
Tree walks and Bookshop Day
A few places have become available on tree walks I’m leading this weekend, and next Sunday. Find out more here.
And did you know Bookshop Day is a thing? This year it falls on Saturday 12th October, and I'll be celebrating at Village Books in lovely Dulwich Village, south London.
Thank you for featuring these lovely trees in St Mary’s graveyard. Readers might like to know that they share the space with a gravestone for a Mr Gulliver. Jonathan Swift visited Banbury a number of times, and it is assumed he got the name Gulliver, for his work Gulliver’s Travels, from this gravestone.