Sunday, October 9, 2011

Family Trees or Woodland Trees.

Measuring an ancient beech tree at Ashridge
When we draw up our family trees we tend to forget that there are living trees which were around when out great great great (or more) grandfathers were alive. The above beech tree is in the Ashridge National Trust estate, not far from where I live, and is about 200 years old. It is the 100,000 tree to be recorded in the Ancient Tree Hunt and can be seen in the 100,000th tree video

Thomas Godman's map of 1803 (from Aldbury, The Open Village) showing that about 210 years ago the  location of the tree (approx location shown) was open common land.
If you want to know where there are ancient trees near where your Hertfordshire ancestors lived, which they could have seen, you could try looking at this Interactive Map although I am sure there are many more trees to be recorded.
See also 

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