The Silver Maple of Gripper

For years nobody could measure this tree, because nobody could get to it. When the national register of monumental trees noted the silver maple, it stood inside a closed factory yard in the centre of Oss, and the entry said a girth measurement was impossible and that building plans were being prepared. The plans happened, and the tree stayed. The factory site became housing, the address changed in December 2017 from Bram van de Berghstraat 22 to Gripper 28, and the maple now stands in a municipal planting by a playground, between the brick-paved street and the new houses. A register photograph from 2023 shows it in its new setting, and an inspector saw it again in March 2026. The register now gives it a girth of 4.31 metres and a height of 20 metres. It does not say when that girth was taken, so read it as the register's figure rather than a fresh measurement, though it is a believable size for a silver maple of this age. The planting is put in the 1890s, which makes it roughly 126 to 136 years old: a North American species that has spent its whole life in the middle of a Brabant town. What it saw inside those walls, the register does not say; its history field reads 'unknown'. If you know who planted it, or what the factory made, tell us. It is a ten-minute walk from Oss station.