| A Large Beech Tree stood near the Hall on Rushden Hall Park for 300 years. It was a popular place that young mothers could bring a picnic and sit in the shade on warm summer days while their toddlers and infants played safely.
After safety issues had been found 12 years ago it had been reduced in size, but on the 20th of May this year it suffered an unexpected catastrophic failure when two of its major limbs collapsed.
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From above showing how the rot had set in
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Taken from above
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Safety barriers were placed in a cordon around the tree, but the following morning as the keeper was opening the park gates he heard a crash and felt a solid thump through his feet as another limb fell, crushing one of the barriers!
An arboriculturist inspection was carried out for the Council, with the hope that even in this state it could be salvaged, but the rot had progressed further than at first thought and the recommendation was to take it down immediately.
The loss of the tree was reported not just locally in the Evening Telegraph but also on BBC TV and Radio, from where it was picked up by MSN and seen in the US news! Locals in the press and social media expressed their sadness and regret. As one said for many of us "another piece of my childhood gone". But was it one tree or five? It is thought to have been 5 trees "banded" together as saplings for mutual support, and when the first failed the others were brought down with it.
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