146. Fat Chestnut

Visit Ipswich for one of England’s finest urban parks stuffed with tree treasures.

On the eastern side of ancient Christchurch Park, just north of Ipswich town centre, the park’s fattest and possibly oldest tree can be found. It is an aged sweet chestnut, the largest of several, and may be even older than Tudor Christchurch Mansion. Several limbs, which appear to be dripping with wood, branch at head height, suggesting the tree was pollarded in the distant past.

Emerging sweet chestnut foliage

Species details

Sweet chestnut
Castanea sativa

Where to find it

Christchurch Park, Bolton Lane, Ipswich IP4 2BX
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Another ancient sweet chestnut

82. Shoreham Chestnut