The White Willow of Heijbeek

The fourth-thickest trunk in Roosendaal's part of the national tree register belongs not to an oak or a plane but to a willow standing alone in a meadow at the edge of Nispen. It measures 5.02 metres round at chest height and stands 22 metres tall. The Bomenstichting's Landelijk Register Monumentale Bomen identifies it as a schietwilg, the white willow, and bands its planting to the decade 1900 to 1910, so it has been growing here for well over a century. That band is the only basis for its age. The register records it in its natural shape, a free-grown crown rather than a cropped pollard, in grassland where Broekakkerstraat meets Heijbeeksestraat. It has not been pampered. In July 2003 an inspector wrote that maintenance was long overdue and that the crown urgently needed lifting. The tree carried on regardless: the register photographed it again in 2016 and in 2024, and last recorded it on 16 May 2024, still on the list as monumental. An aerial photograph from spring 2026 shows a single rounded crown about 13 metres across, alone in the open field. The register is the only source we have, and its history field reads simply 'unknown'. Nobody has written down who planted a willow here or why. If you know, tell us. The meadow is private, so see it from the road. It is about 280 metres east of the copper beech at the gate of Nispen's parish cemetery.