13th March
Enticed by this legend
“This veteran Beech has stood for hundreds of years on the eastern edge of Fineshade Wood and is called the Cathedral Tree by some Fineshade folk. However, it is much closer to the village of KIng’s Cliffe. There it is known simply as “The Beech Tree” but it seems to have special significance and one hears tell of solstice celebrations and of marriage rites being conducted under its arching branches.
Walking under the tree in summer you enter a huge vaulted green space that seems very special indeed.
The tree is entered in the national Ancient Tree Inventory and we have recorded its girth as 6.43m. which means that it is probably over 300 years old”
Philippa and I set off on a walk to find this inspirational tree. “Have you been there before?”
“No, but I’ve seen pictures!” in terms of path finding, map reading and compass points, I am about as much use as a chocolate teapot. We did find an OS map reference, we knew King’s Cliffe was where we needed to head for and the What Three Words ap helped us on our way.
It’s a long, long time since I have been on a longish walk, I am very creaky, I was worried I wouldn’t keep up and my breathing would be terrible. I am carrying too much weight, was inappropriately dressed and my boots were ancient and leaky. Hard to believe I had spent ten years on creative walking and wellbeing projects. I had achieved a great level of fitness, had lost weight but 10 years on and all that life had thrown my way, I was back to unfit central!
However, once we were on the path, which was wide and solid, I felt a lot better. The magnificent Beech had loomed large in my dreams for so long and this was the day we would finally meet. The air quality was great, my breathing was good, the lichen had told its truth and Phil was a brilliant Pathfinder. We marvelled at moss, grasses, saplings, catkins and the many changes in the weather, sun, wind, hail, rain, this walk had it all. There were gaps I the hedges which showing signs of animal activity. Not much bird song but a few wheeling Kites. We were on the Jurassic Way. We passed some purposeful walkers coming in the opposite direction and we asked if they had seen a huge and stately Beech Tree on there travels. They shook their heads and we trudged on.
We reached an area that had been cleared, it was like a field of bones, sloping down towards a managed area of younger beech trees, a Muntjac deer flashed his tail at us as he headed for the trees. Then it started to hail so we decided to brave the field of bones and shelter amongst the beech trees. There was a crispy carpet of leaves and beech masts and we sat for awhile on a sinuous upended youngster whilst the map app told us we were just a minute away from our veteran tree! We decided to walk down between the trees and stumbled on a path, we followed that. We found a trampled fence and a fallen sign, and it became apparent that the Cathedral Beech was no more! After three to four hundred years, it was a being reclaimed as a habitat. So once again we were caught in that dead, not dead liminal zone and what remained of the tree remined me, from certain angles it remined me of footage I had seen of the steelworks coming down. From other angles it looked like a David Shrigley sculpture. It was hard to know what to think or feel – than, as if by magic a young woman with two black Labradors turned the corner and came towards us. Shell was able to tell us what had happened and when and that her brother, a tree surgeon, had scaled the tree before it had lost all its limbs. She promised to send photos.
There was more to see and more people to meet on our way back to the car but the walk certainly felt like something out of a story!
“In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero’s quest or hero’s journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.”
