The Lime of the Old School

A second lime in Macharen, on the Hoogstraat by what the register calls Basisschool De Linde, a primary school apparently named for this very tree. It is banded to a planting around 1870, roughly 160 years old, a generation younger than its counterpart at the church square a few streets over. A lime that gives a school its name is a small but telling sign of how central a village tree can become: not just scenery but a landmark children are taught by its presence, generation after generation, whether or not anyone still remembers who planted it. Common lime tolerates the compacted soil and foot traffic around a schoolyard better than most species, part of why it became the default village tree across the Netherlands for so long. The register carries no further history for this tree, only the species and the decade. If you know anything about the school's own naming, or the tree's history before the register recorded it, tell us.