Fryern Hall

 When we moved into our house earlier this year, the garden was extremely overgrown. The back lawn was parched and you could clearly see the outline of a chalk/flint pathway cutting across the grass. Our neighbour informed us that the houses had been built on the site of a former Pleasure Gardens.

Exploring the nearby river and woodlands we came across an ornamental pond, the remnants of a stone garden wall and many specimen trees and shrubs. Rhododendrons, Monkey Puzzle Trees and Redwoods are not native to England. They had been preserved and the estate built around them. The woodlands were an area known as Fryern Dell and not far away was Fryern Farm estate but I wondered where was the original 'Big House' ?

It didn't take long to discover that the house no longer exists but I was intrigued to learn it's history. Fryern Hall was a Georgian house and purchased by Charlotte King in 1830. She lived there with her son George until her death (Storrington Museum source) In 1855 George King died and the house passed to his son Frederick who developed the Pleasure Grounds. He shows up on the 1861 census living at the Hall with his wife and four children. It was not by the standards of the day, a large house having only 13 bedrooms and dressing rooms and 5 for servants. The grounds extended to a mere 35 acres with 'charming gardens and pleasure grounds, a rhododendron bank, tennis courts, fish ponds. walled kitchen garden and double greenhouse.'

There is a local conservation society who form working parties to maintain the area known as Fryern Dell. One of the things they have been responsible for this year has been clearing the pond.

The Pleasure Grounds were planted out between 1855-1876 and the network of pathways date from this time also. Digging in the garden, I have uncovered several horse shoes....older than I had previously imagined !

In 1926 Robert King (son of Frederick) died and in 1928 the estate was sold to a Mr Carl Davis. It presumably remained in the Davis family before being requisitioned for Canadian Troops in 1940. In 1950 it was sold again to a Mr Godfrey who opened it up as a Country Club and at some point in the 1960s it was demolished. We don't know the reasons why it was pulled down but it was probably financial. The land over time was sold off to developers who began constructing the housing estate. This began in the 1960s and finished in the early 2000s.

Every time I wander along the riverside walk, I wonder how many people have trod the same pathways. Particularly on autumn days when the mist swirls around the pond and along the river and creeps up the lanes. Are the figures in the mist fellow ramblers or echoes from the past ?

It's a wonderfully atmospheric place.

The Rowan Tree

 The Rowan Tree or Sorbus acuparia goes by many other names including Lady of the Mountain, Mountain Ash, Shepherd's Friend and Witchbane. Horticulturally speaking it is related to the rose.

It is a small, grey barked tree which can grow in exposed and inhospitable places. You can often find it growing amongst rocks and in crevices. It utilises fungus on its roots to help it find water in these situations. The leaves are feather like in shape and it bears creamy-white blossom in May/June followed by scarlet berries in the autumn.

The wood is very hard wearing and has lent itself to be fashioned into tools, walking sticks, spinning wheels and the divining rods of Druids.

Rowan was much utilised by the Druids who used it for creating wands and runes. A black dye used for their ceremonial robes was extracted from its bark and they further believed that wine made from the berries granted second sight.The berries can be made into any manner of alcoholic drink depending on the area of the country you lived in.

Herbal medicine used the berries and the leaves often in teas.Taken to aid digestion or to stem bleeding it was given in childbirth and prescribed as a remedy for rheumatism. The leaves and berries have astringent qualities. The berries themselves contain high levels of Vitamin C and were used to treat scurvy. Today they are popular made into jams and jellies.

Long believed to be the Tree of Protection Christians thought it granted protection against witchcraft and enchantment. Trees were planted near houses to protect the owners and branches placed over beds to guard the sleeper. Branches were placed near wells to keep the water pure and next to milk churns to stop the milk from turning. On May Day farmers would drive their sheep through hoops woven from rowan to prevent them from becoming bewitched.

The colour red has long denoted protection against enchantment and people would carry pieces of rowan wood bound with red thread as a talisman. The red berries carry a pentagram pattern at their base-long associated as a protective symbol.

Known as the 'Quickening Tree' by Celts it was associated with the Festival of Imbolc, the start of the year and the reawakening of the earth.

 

The Beech Tree

 Other names for the Beech tree are Faggio. Fagus and Bog.

It is often found growing besides hedgerows and in chalky soils. One of our tallest native trees it can reach 40 metres (130 foot) and bears a dome shaped crown and smooth grey bark. In spring the leaves are lime green darkening with the progression of the year and becoming copper in the autumn.

 Male and female flowers grow on the same tree followed by catkins which will produce beech nuts in the autumn.A tall but shallow rooted tree susceptible to damage from stormy weather. Many were lost in the Great Storm of 1987 in Britain. 

The word 'book' is derived from the Anglo Saxon word 'boec' as in Saxon times the soft bark was used as rudimentary book.Because the bark is easy to carve it has long been a favourite tree for lovers to carve their initials onto. Some tree graffitti is centuries old !

It has many uses being used for furniture, ship keels and allegedly part of the foundations of Winchester Cathedral. Winchester being on peaty marshland. The wood burns well and is traditionally used to smoke kippers and beechnuts can be roasted as a coffee substitute.

In herbal medicine the leaves can be boiled and made into a poultice to relieve swellings.

The Celts called it the 'tree of wishes'. A fallen branch was regarded as an invitation from the faery world. If you wrote you wish upon it and pushed it underground, it would be taken to the Underworld for the attention of the Faery Queen.

Considered nurturing and protective, travellers could sleep safely underneath a beech tree although you were advised not to swear beneath one lest it drop a branch upon you !

Native Woodland Trees

Ask anyone to name a native woodland tree and most people could probably come up with half a dozen names. 

Identifying them might be a different matter altogether !

As a mature student I spent a year at Horticulture College and part of the course was learning how to identify over one hundred different plants. Many of which were trees which you had to be able to recognise both with and without leaves. Trees change their appearance with the seasons and recognising a deciduous tree only by it's leaves is no help in the winter ! You had to learn it's shape and it's bark as well as it's preferred growing location.

Trees have folklore and superstitions attached to them. Some country lore stems from the medicinal uses which man has derived from them.

Here are the trees that I intend to explore in the coming months.

Beech, Birch,Elder, Hawthorn, Hazel, Holly, Oak,Rowan, Ash, Alder, Willow, Sycamore amd Yew.

I hope that you enjoy their stories.

In Celebration of our Woodlands

 Hello and welcome to my brand new blog which is all about trees. I have loved trees all my life and have created this blog to share what I have learnt about their history, their horticulture and the folklore that surrounds trees.

The inspiration behind the new blog came primarily from moving house earlier this year. Our new home is bordered by a narrow strip of native woodland.The houses were built on the site of a former Pleasure Grounds and a brief 5 minute stroll leads you out of the village into open countryside.

I found myself literally surrounded by native and more exotic trees.

Trees are not only the lungs of the planet but also provide a connection with both the past and the future. Planting a tree is the best legacy you could leave for future generations.

I am going to end my introductory post with an excerpt from 'The True' by Amanda Marks. 

'We are woodland and we are never silent.Never.Do you hear our voice? Wind often makes our trees dance and shake to the rhythm of the day, be ita gentle, leaf ruffling breeze or an all-out branch-cracking gale. Rain falls demurely onto our blankets of welcoming greenery, with a hushed sigh, or spitefully stabs anything in it's path in a desire to be heard.
 Birds sing sweet songs from our boughs and branches, squirrels scritchety-scratch up our trunks of wrinkly bark, and throngs of insects hum incessantly around us. But these sounds are not our voice.
Only a few remaining wise hearts hear our voice-the ancient word of the forest-and understand the true connection.

Listen. We are a living, breathing, connected community. We are alive.We are life.'