Welcome to The Parks Walks.
These parks are in fact an Arboretum, a garden of trees, they come from throughout the world as well as locally and the stories and anecdotes I have listed reflect this international nature. There are also some fabulous shrubs and beds, but in the interest of my commission I have focused on the trees, with the last section having a list of all trees present in this park
So first stop is the entrance to the lower park with Parkhouse Road behind you, here there is a bench which you may like to take a perch on before you read on.
Chapter one
Entrance to The Parks Walks
Chapter two
Walnut
There are two large tree specimens to your right, an Oak and a Copper Beech, both I will talk about later in the walks. The next tree has a silver white smooth trunk and lifts over the stream, this is a Walnut tree. If you turn around to the road there is less crowded and healthier specimen standing by the wall next to the White Cherry. The image above is of the first May buds as the tree springs into life.
Walnut trees, according to Mr M. Robinson's The New Family Herbal were a wonder whose medicinal properties could be turned to almost every eventuality. Cures ranged from Rabies to Carbuncles, Gangrene to a simple sore throat, (green Walnuts mixed with Honey to make a gargle.) Interestingly enough Mr Robinson's book, which was published in the late 1870's has this remark in respect to Culpeper's Herbal which was first published around 1652. Culpeper's had been the go-to herbalist book for almost 200 years by this point.
'[Culpeper's Herbal] is entirely useless in this modern era of science'
Mr Robinson purports that Walnuts were also a great antidote to many poisons, the kernel also being good for colic sufferers, and half ripe ones able to strengthen weak stomachs.
Walnut trees, according to Mr M. Robinson's The New Family Herbal were a wonder whose medicinal properties could be turned to almost every eventuality. Cures ranged from Rabies to Carbuncles, Gangrene to a simple sore throat, (green Walnuts mixed with Honey to make a gargle.) Interestingly enough Mr Robinson's book, which was published in the late 1870's has this remark in respect to Culpeper's Herbal which was first published around 1652. Culpeper's had been the go-to herbalist book for almost 200 years by this point.
'[Culpeper's Herbal] is entirely useless in this modern era of science'
Mr Robinson purports that Walnuts were also a great antidote to many poisons, the kernel also being good for colic sufferers, and half ripe ones able to strengthen weak stomachs.
Chapter three
Walnut
In Glastonbury there was once a famous Walnut at the side of St Josephs Chapel in the Abbey Churchyard, it was termed 'a miraculous specimen, which never budded before the feast of St Barnabas' (June 11th) and Queen Anne, and King James were said to have given large sums of money for cuttings.
In English Folklore the early flowering of the Walnut heralds a good harvest, with the opposite being the case when there is an abundance of foliage and little blossom. But more importantly if a walnut was placed under a witch's chair, then the witch would become rooted to the spot, and in the interests of modern science I have placed one beneath your very bench to see if this works. So, I wonder, are you able to stand ?!
Harvesting Walnut fruit is completed by knocking them off the branch rather than pruning, which this rather distressing old English rhyme suggests.
A woman, a spaniel, and a Walnut tree,
the more you beat them, the better they be.
(anon)
Thankfully neither of these three reprehensible acts are condoned these days, but interestingly it is thought that more fruit will grow next year from a broken or ripped tip than a pruned one.
In English Folklore the early flowering of the Walnut heralds a good harvest, with the opposite being the case when there is an abundance of foliage and little blossom. But more importantly if a walnut was placed under a witch's chair, then the witch would become rooted to the spot, and in the interests of modern science I have placed one beneath your very bench to see if this works. So, I wonder, are you able to stand ?!
Harvesting Walnut fruit is completed by knocking them off the branch rather than pruning, which this rather distressing old English rhyme suggests.
A woman, a spaniel, and a Walnut tree,
the more you beat them, the better they be.
(anon)
Thankfully neither of these three reprehensible acts are condoned these days, but interestingly it is thought that more fruit will grow next year from a broken or ripped tip than a pruned one.
Directions - Please now pass over the bridge and down into the park, at the left turn there is a large Ash tree on the corner and the next chapter will reveal there.