Issue 6, January 2003 (Back to Contents)

Richard Beauchamp, the Bursar, on the challenges of maintaining the Radley landscape.

Chesnut Avenue (Click to enlarge)

Recent storms haven't helped (Click to enlarge)

Whether climate change is to blame is debatable, but whatever, a combination of age and strong winds has taken its toll in recent years and especially so on Chestnut Avenue. These trees were planted in 1897 as a memorial to Radley's Golden Jubilee and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The trees which were given by the 2nd Lord Addington and originally comprised 4 lines of trees, 81 trees in all, were known at least until 1947 as Addington Avenue (Boyd's History of Radley). Following the removal of the inner line of trees, the March 1925 Radleian reported 'Viewers to Radley will notice that the trees up the front drive have been considerably thinned out on the principle that quality is preferable, at any rate in horticulture, to quantity'.

These trees, which the books suggest usually have a life expectancy of around 80 years, are now likely to be close to 110 years old. Three of the 37 horse chestnuts in Chestnut Avenue have had to be felled in the past few months and although others have been actively managed to reduce crown weight, we have been advised that they are all living on borrowed time. The quandary that has been facing the College is what action to take.

New horse chestnuts are being planted to replace felled trees (Click to enlarge)

The professional advice seems brutally unequivocal; fell all the trees simultaneously and replant in fresh ground in the space between the existing trees. However this approach will dramatically alter, for at least two generations, one of the main features as one enters the College. Hence it seems preferable, bearing in mind that it is impossible to ascertain exactly when a particular tree has reached the end of its life, to follow an altogether more cowardly approach: to fell trees as they succumb to age or weather and to dig out as much of the root ball as possible and to replace with new soil before replanting. The only change will be to plant alternate white (Aesculus Hippocastanum) and red (Aesculus X Carnea) horse chestnuts on each side of the Avenue. How Radley!