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As it happens7:08 a.mAfter 150 years of life surrounded by tombstones, London’s Hardy Tree fell
London, UK, tour guide Jack Chesher has walked many people through the history of the Hardy Tree. Named after Victorian author Thomas Hardy, the lone ash tree is just a short walk from King’s Cross station, in St Pancras Gardens, surrounded by gravestones.
It has been celebrated as a symbol of life in the midst of death for more than 150 years, but now the famous tree has come to an end. Hardy trees fell this week, after being downed by recent storms.
“My immediate reaction was sadness, really,” Chesher said As it happens guest host Helen Mann. “It’s great to see.”
He describes the roots of the tree, growing between the tombstones, as a powerful image, even though he knows it is dead.
Hardy’s tree was infected with a fungus in 2014, and since then the infection has been destroying the tree from the inside. The local Camden Council, anticipating the death of the tree, took steps to manage it last year.
“There’s a fence around the tree,” Chesher said. “You used to be able to get close, but [now] Some time ago, the trees were surrounded by a fence, so that if they fell, no one would be hurt.”
Chesher noted that there were plans to replace the fence with a larger structure and “look a little better,” but several storms this year weakened the trees. Then, after years, the tree finally fell earlier this week.
“Around 2.30pm on Boxing Day, a resident was heard falling to the ground,” he said.
A tour guide visited St Pancras Gardens on Wednesday and noticed a rose on one of the graves near a tree.
“A lot of people went and paid their respects,” he said. He also heard an impromptu reading of a Thomas Hardy poem.
The Story of the Hardy Tree
Today, all that remains of the Hardy Tree is its trunk in the grounds of Old St. John’s Church. Pancras. The churchyard was once used for burials – and was much larger than it is today.
It was until the 1860s, when plans were made to cut a railway line through the yard, and to build a station, something to do with about 10,000 corpses buried there.
Thomas Hardy was an apprentice architect at the time. Chesher said he had the “horrific” and “horrific” task of burying the body and moving the grave.
“You would think that it would be an artist or a writer or someone with a vivid imagination who would create this tombstone display,” he said. “I think… [it] is said to have had a profound effect on him.”
Chesher says the perfectly stacked headstones around the ash tree remind us of contrasts, such as life and death, the uplifting and the macabre, and the wretched and the beautiful. And Chesher says you can see that theme in Thomas Hardy’s writing.
“Living through the Victorian era, sometimes called the age of destruction – because of the railways, because of the big clean-up schemes that happened in London at that time – a lot had to be thrown away in the name of progress,” he said. Cheshire.
“Hardy trees are abundantly a product of that period.”
Circle of life
Camden councilor Adam Harrison issue a statement yesterday about the plan for the tree to fall.
“We are very sorry to see that our beloved Hardy Tree has come down and we have started discussions with local community members about ways to commemorate the tree and its story,” the councilor said.
The council is considering harvesting wood to make commemorative objects, such as benches, or planting new trees. Chesher, on the other hand, brought up the idea of letting nature take its course.
“I spoke with the actual rector, and he would be happy to stay there … like it decomposes … This will also be part of his story,” said the tour guide.
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