159. Wilson Tree
A perfect dome-shaped tree has graced a pretty Cotswold town for 150 years. I can hardly believe this is the first ginkgo I have posted!
Ernest Wilson, the great early-twentieth-century plant hunter who introduced many Chinese plants to the west, was born in Chipping Campden in 1876. The family left the Cotswolds while Ernest was a child, but the verdant ginkgo, an unusual, old and shapely landmark enclosed by iron railings on the High Street, may have been an early inspiration for his glamorous future career.
The tree was planted in 1878 by the family who lived in Bedfont House, a fine Georgian house nearby. They had acquired it from a nursery in Yokohama: we can only wonder at the journey the tree must have undertaken to arrive safely in Gloucestershire all those years ago.
Species details
Ginkgo
Ginkgo biloba
Where to find it
High Street, Chipping Campden GL55 6HB
///withdraw.ramps.grape | 52.051625, -1.779101
Hello new subscribers
If you subscribed in the last few weeks, thank you. Perhaps I met you at one of my recent events, and if you were the person at the Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire on Friday who asked what I thought of ginkgos, this one is for you. Two great Edinburgh Substacks, the Edinburgh Minute and Build Edinburgh, both picked up I was doing a talk at the lovely Golden Hare Books in Stockbridge last week. It was a great event, and over subscribed, so I’m sorry if you were not able to make it. Hopefully I’ll be back in Edinburgh before too long… In the meantime, I recommend you subscribe to these great ’stacks:
I’m curious, is it common to know the provenance of an old tree like this in so much detail, and where did you find the information?