The Sessile Oak of the Blijdensteinpark

A dual carriageway runs through this park, and the tree is by a filling station. Both facts are worth stating first, because they are what this place is now. It began as an estate. In 1855 H. G. Blijdenstein and his wife Ebeling built a villa on the Helweg, the road that later became the Gronausestraat, and laid out grounds around it. Their daughter Johanna Ida Beltman-Blijdenstein was the last person to live there. The Blijdensteins were one of the Twente textile dynasties, and like the Van Heeks and the Ledeboers what they left the city was ground with trees on it. What happened afterwards is what happens to green space near a growing city. The Boulevard 1945 was driven straight through the park, cutting it in two, and the eastern edge now holds a petrol station. The oak has been there since around 1900 to 1910 and has watched the arrangement change around it. It is a sessile oak, so the acorns sit tight against the twig and the leaves have a clear stalk, the reverse of the commoner pedunculate oak. Go on a Sunday, when the road is quiet.