The Mina Road Park Plane

Of all the Bristol trees the Bristol Tree Forum has measured at more than five metres round, this plane comes thirteenth. It stands in Mina Road Park in St Werburghs, 6.2 metres round, the largest of a group of London planes that the Forum says were all planted at the same time, around 1880. That date makes them a small puzzle. The park itself opened on 30 June 1886, laid out by Frederick Ashmead with a Victorian scheme of Wellingtonia, deodar and Cryptomeria, on ground given to the Corporation in 1884. If the Forum is right, the planes were growing here before the park was a park, and no source we found explains why. Wikipedia's account of the park mentions an older group of London planes alongside its acacias and Norway maples, but gives them no date. A planting around 1880 is plausible. It is not proven, and both the girth and the year are the Forum's own figures, so the age here runs from 120 to 160 years. The Forum also does not say which trunk in the group is the big one, and all the planes are the same age. The pin is approximate, from the survey's grid reference. Look for the widest trunk among the planes; at 6.2 metres it should stand out. It is a 35-minute walk north-east of Queen Square, near Stapleton Road and Montpelier stations. If you know why these planes are older than the park around them, tell us.