Submissions of trees gone but not forgotten...
While Henfield is lucky to have many trees of historic and botanical interest, we must travel into the past to visit the many other rare species once in the village. Several were linked to the activities of prolific local 19th century botanist William Borrer.
All images are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)*
(*unless specified otherwise)
(*unless specified otherwise)
Stormy Nights and Broken Boughs
A selection of the venerable trees lost in storms of recent years
The Fallen Titan (- 2009)
Submitted by Robert G, December 2020
Submitted by Robert G, December 2020
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This Giant Redwood, or Sequoiadendron Giganteum, never failed to make a striking impact - only enhanced by its incongruous modern surroundings at Mill Drive. It was arguably Henfield's most impressive tree.
It was likely planted in the garden of famous local botanist William Borrer shortly after the first seeds arrived in Europe from California in the early 1850s. Overlooking the village from Barrow Hill, it remained long after his famed garden of 6600 species receded into memory, and then history. Ultimately, it was to have a dramatic and premature end. Struck and split by lightning in a summer storm in 2009, it crushed several cars and was felled that day, just weeks after this photo was taken in June of that year. It was likely around 150 years old, still small for its type and 3000 years the junior of its oldest fellow growing natively in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. |
The well known Lucombe Oak further up the road looks on as the likely last survivor of Mr. Borrer's garden. Today, a walk up this road reveals a new less exotic sapling as the single sign of where Henfield's American titan once stood.
The Barrow Hill Cedar (- 1973)
Submitted by Robert G, January 2020, Alan B, May 2020
This immense Lebanon cedar of many spreading boughs is seen below from both angles. Its demise in November 1973 was featured in local newspaper reports. Like the giant redwood tree above, it was once one of the many trees in botanist William Borrer's garden. Likely brought home by his son Dawson (on whom more below), it would not long survive the development.
Submitted by Robert G, January 2020, Alan B, May 2020
This immense Lebanon cedar of many spreading boughs is seen below from both angles. Its demise in November 1973 was featured in local newspaper reports. Like the giant redwood tree above, it was once one of the many trees in botanist William Borrer's garden. Likely brought home by his son Dawson (on whom more below), it would not long survive the development.
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Submitted by Alan B, February 2021
The Spring Hill Beech (- 2020)
This venerable beech was long a character of the village, marking the rising edge of Henfield. The photo below was taken by Alan in 1984, while the well known Henfield photo below it was taken by Marjorie Baker in 1947. It shows Tom Browning and members of the Dale family having won the cup for best kept market garden under 50 acres. Finally blowing down in 2020, its end can be seen in the final photo.
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The Lebanon Cedars at Springhills, (- 1984)
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Perhaps Henfield's most lamented lost trees are these, a landmark on entering or leaving the village via steep Barrow Hill and preserved in Alan's photo of May 1984. The seedlings had made the long journey back from the Middle East with Dawson Borrer, collected from the slopes of Mount Lebanon in 1843. Planted at Spring Hill on his return that year, they survived there for almost a century and a half until the mid 1980s when they were felled during the demolition of the house at Springhills, disappearing along with the plaque memorialising their planting. They outlived their fellow in the Barrow Hill garden seen in the entry above by a little over a decade. Dawson's adventures on his trip can be read in his 1845 book, A Journey from Naples to Jerusalem.
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The Lebanon Cedars c. 1930s - 40s as drawn by John Gray
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Pine Tree, King James' Lane, (- 1987)
Submitted by Alan B, December 2020 This mature pine tree stood at the crossways in King James's Lane, and carpeted the lane with its cones and pine needles. It was blown down in the 1987 hurricane and fell along the backs of the bungalows at Springhills, fortunately not damaging any of the properties. The photo was taken in the mid '80s. |
The Church Street Horse Chestnut (- 2012)
Submitted by Alan B, March 2021 This venerable horse chestnut stood long on Henfield's old route towards St. Peter's, it's acutely vertically angled bough reaching skywards. And then, one day in 2012, it stood no longer. |
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The Black Walnut (- 2015)
Submitted by Adrian V, March 2021
Submitted by Adrian V, March 2021
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Native to North America, this Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) stood in a garden in Cedar Way until felled in 2015; being too close, it excluded light to the property.
While a home for wild life, squirrels, insects and birds including a woodpecker, the flowers, leaves, their spines and fruit could be a nuisance to the properties nearby. Once standing in what was William Borrer’s Barrow Hill House estate, it was possibly over 200 years old when felled in 2015. |
The Black Walnut, June 2009, Photo: R. S. Gordon
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The Demise of Henfield's Black Walnut. Photos: Adrian V.