Beautiful Brigstock - A Day Planting Jubilee Woods

Jubilee Woods Tree Planting Day on Saturday February 18th, The Water Tower, Brigstock with Rosalind Stoddart FRSA, Independent Cultural Engineer. We were joined by artists, poets, storytellers, families and friends to undertake the planting. 

The weather was blustery with the constant threat of rain but spirits were high and the planting went smoothly. We planted 106 trees, 105 hawthorn, hazel, silver birch, rowan, wild cherry, dogwood and one walnut tree, all of which fitted in three buckets but took several hours to plant! 

Nursery Manager for AES Europe Ann Leonard, Proprietor - Mr Robert Cockroft and Operations Manager - Mr Anthony McKenna  -  donated the stakes and mesh to protect the young trees.

There was also the special tree grown from a seed from one of the Royal Estates. Poet Adrian Johnson read a The Heart of the Tree by Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855 - 1896) as the tree was planted and each tree was planted with a penny for luck. 

Our youngest tree planter was Hamish Young who is just over two years old. We were also joined by Annabel Amos during BBC Radio Northampton's Treasure Quest we were  the final destination and so the planting was shared with the wider community. Annabel was able to plant a tree before dashing back to Northampton in the radio car.

Indoor poetry reprise by Adrian Johnson

Afterward the planting we had a hearty lunch of soup, bread, cheese, carrots, grapes and fruit cake, poems were read and stories were told whilst we ate. Ros read a special extract from B.B a writer close to her heart and the subject of her most recent project BB and His World. 

Storyteller Allan Davies told a wonderful tale 

which he thinks is called The World Tree. 

I read the following poems

Go Plant a Tree by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Woman Waving to Trees by Dorothea Tanning

Trees Need Not Walk the Earth by David Rosenthal

Before the Snake by Nathaniel Tarn

It felt good to be planting trees, to be part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, it was a celebratory day, so much more than a street party, as we were setting down roots, an act of faith in the future. 

The Tree Planters Were :-

Rosalind Stoddart

Carole Miles

Michael Miles

Ann Leonard
Annabel Amos

Amos Ballard

Millie Ballard

Sophie Cullinan

Kitty Cullinan

Jonty Cullinan

Emma Davies

Kate Dyer

Lorraine Dziarkowska

 Claudia Faehrenkemper

Jurgen
Nick Finn and Family

Adrian Johnson

Hilary Kantorowich

Gunta Krumins

Agris Krumins

Maureen Walvin

Sally Wilks

Lisa Wilkinson

Meriel White

Hamish Young

Graeham Young

There were also thoughts of, 

and trees planted for, 

people who couldn't attend 

or were no longer with us.