The Oldbury Court Sweet Chestnut

One tree runs this park. The Bristol Tree Forum says this sweet chestnut dominates Oldbury Court, a massive veteran standing on its own in the middle of a wide stretch of grass, with a clean trunk 5.9 metres round and a fine head of branches above it. In a park of big trees, it is the one you see first. The Forum estimates it at about 400 years old. That is the Forum's figure, from a tree that has never been dated, and we have only its survey for this particular chestnut, so take the number as a careful guess rather than a record. On that estimate it would have been growing here since the early 1600s, long before Oldbury Court became a public park in Fishponds and before Humphry Repton, the landscape designer, was brought in to advise on the grounds. Sweet chestnuts are not native to Britain. Nobody has left a record of how this one came to stand here. Its neighbours give a sense of the place. The Forum also lists two big oaks on the northern edge of the estate, above the gorge of the River Frome, at around 380 years old. If you know its history, tell us.