I’m so sad to see destruction of tree that I nurtured for 20 years

A MAN says he is sad that a tree he nurtured for 20 years in the garden of his former home has been destroyed.

Lucius Cary, 75, had hoped to prolong the life of the plane tree at Huntswood House in Harpsden Bottom, where he lived with his family for 50 years until they sold up last summer.

The “interesting” tree was snapped in a lightning strike in 2000 but he helped keep it alive and hoped to bring back its strength by pruning and reshaping the new boughs that grew.

However, the new owner of the house has had the tree dug up.

Mr Cary, who now lives in Newtown Road, Henley, said: “It was a very special tree and was originally planted in 1991 after the hurricane in January that year caused the loss of 14 million trees in the UK.

“It was part of an avenue of plane trees which gave access to the beech wood which we also replanted in that year with 460 beech, oak, whitebeam and a few other species.

“We received financial help with the replanting from South Oxfordshire District Council for which we were very grateful.

“In 2000, the ash tree in the hedge opposite was struck by lightning and hit the plane tree, snapping its 6in diameter trunk about 6ft above the ground. To tidy up. I cut it off at about 3ft above the ground.

“The next year it began sprouting vigorously and so the idea of the ‘Swing Tree’, as we called it, was born.

“We built a wooden frame and over the next 20 years trained the four main boughs up round this frame. At the top the boughs met at the corners of a square and then went up a frame so that they spiralled round each other.

“The tree would then have continued to grow heavenward above the spiral.”

His idea was that in about 100 years’ time, these four boughs would grow sufficiently thick that they would lock together at which point the whole tree would become fully self-supporting and a child’s swing would be built inside the sphere.

His four children, Elenor, Horatio, Lettice and Alfred, helped him build the structure to support the tree and he liked the idea that one day some other children would be able to use the swing.

The family attached a wooden plaque to the tree naming it “The Swing Tree” and explaining the history behind it.

“I like long-term projects -— there is too much short-termism,” said Mr Cary, who owns Oxford Technology, which invests in science start-ups. “People really liked it. You couldn’t miss it when you drove past. We also built a treehouse, which I think is still there.”

As the family were selling the house, Mr Cary had hoped to have a preservation order placed on the tree by the district council but his efforts failed.

He said: “At some point in the spring I had a meeting with a man I believed to be the tree preservation officer who was most enthusiastic about the tree.

“He said something like, ‘Oh, I do congratulate you. This is wonderful and I’ve never seen a tree like this before. I will certainly give it a tree preservation order and would you like any other trees protected?’.

“I said, ‘No, just this one’. I emailed the new owner after the sale of the house to discuss the pruning of the tree. It needed to be pruned so that it didn’t turn into a bush and so that the growth went mainly into the four boughs.

“I offered to prune it myself or else to explain what needed to be done. I emailed twice but received no reply, so I drove up to the house hoping to meet him to discuss the pruning but discovered that the tree had been dug up.”

Mr Cary contacted the council but was told there was no preservation order on the tree.

The council explained that the officer had decided that because the tree was not visible from a public road, it had no public amenity so was not worthy of a protection order.

It said someone from the council had also called the house and explained this to someone, possibly Mr Cary’s wife Joanna.

“I myself do not remember receiving such a call,” said Mr Cary. “But I do very clearly remember the visit from the person who I believed had protected the tree precisely because he was so enthusiastic.

“In any event, it is a very sad story. A tree which was at least very interesting and which had been very much loved, tended and admired by hundreds of visitors over more than 20 years, has been destroyed.

“Now nobody will ever know how it might have looked in the year 2100 or indeed 2200.”

Andrew Aitken, who now owns Huntswood House, did not want to comment.