The Pollard Sweet Chestnut by St Mary's Church

The National Trust's word for this sweet chestnut is a pre-18th-century pollard, which means a tree already standing before 1700, and one that was cut back at head height for its wood. That makes it older than the chestnuts on the hillside nearby in the deer park at Studley Royal, which the Trust dates to about 1710. Pollarding was a working habit. A tree cut back above the reach of grazing animals sends up a crown of new poles, harvested every few years, and a pollard often lives far longer than a tree left alone. In a deer park the height mattered, because deer eat whatever they can reach. The chestnut stands across the roadway from St Mary's Church, the Victorian church the Trust calls a William Burges masterpiece, so a tree already standing before 1700 and a church of the 1870s face each other over the drive. Beyond them lie the water garden and the ruins of Fountains Abbey, and a path on the Trust's ancient trees walk that passes five limes opposite Choristers House. Everything here comes from one source, the National Trust's own walk, which is a good source but a single one. Nobody has published a girth or a sharper age. If you measure it, or know more, tell us.