Everything I have written of Parlington for these pages has dealt with things which are accessible to the general public, however there are aspects of the estate whilst out of reach of the casual walker, are worthy of a mention. One such place is a cute little pond which sports a singular oak tree on a tiny island at its centre. The location known as the Willowgarth Plantation was once a place for quiet reverie, no doubt enjoyed by the Gascoigne family and used for family picnics and the like. The pond had been lost for many years in a jungle of greenery, but was uncovered by the woodman and tidied up, such that it re-established the original charm of the place.
Although it is very much a forest glade, no doubt in the nineteenth century it would have formed a more formal landscape with gravel footpaths passing along the avenues of yew trees, which of course still exist. Amongst the many trees in the Willowgarth plantation perhaps the most significant is a giant redwood [giant Sequoia], one of three to be found on the estate, a second near the Light Arch and another on the west side of the former lake, created by damming the Cock Beck. All three are junior trees by comparison with their cousins in the native land of the Sierra Nevada range in California, moreover they are mere sapling given the great age that this species achieves: in excess of 3,500 years! Various conflicting dates of the introduction to the UK abound, but it is likely that the species started to be planted in the UK from around the mid 1850’s, thus this example and other two may be around 170 years old. This tree is very close to the pond and is part of the avenue of yew trees that forms the pathway running through the plantation.
Sadly as with all living things trees have a life span, albeit much longer than we mere human beings, and it is this that often makes them ubiquitous in the landscape. Parlington has many great example specimen trees, all planted by human hand to create a varied landscape. Unfortunately these are slowly disappearing as the ravages of time render them unsafe. One such tree that was felled last year was the huge beech on Parlington Lane, near the lodge at the Aberford end, probably around two hundred years old. Further information can be found in the estate section of my Parlington website: http://www.parlington.co.uk/