Where can we put 6 more Sherborne Guardians?

A bit of a nag today, I’m sorry.

Many of you have helped and supported the Brook Group’s Ancestor Oaks project over the last 4 years. Now we are culminating in this project which started as a suggestion from Mr Barter of the NT in 2020. Here’s a brief recap:

• Encouraged by the NT we gathered acorns from known ancient oak trees around Sherborne.
• We germinated these and grew them on in our allotment. They are now saplings, healthy and ready to plant out.
• They are for planting out in the local landscape
• Some we provided already to Cotswold National Landscape. These are planted at Dowdeswell by the main road into Cheltenham, some more at a farm nearby and one in-between the car park and the town in Bourton. We provided one to the NT to plant in memory of a former local employee.
• The key part for us here is now, as we always planned, planting an oak in Sherborne in memory for every name on the village war memorial. Actually, let me re-describe that - they are not in memory of the name, they are in memory of a real person, lost in battle, each one a son of Sherborne. These are our “ancestor oaks”, marking the death of each young man who left Sherborne in the world wars and never returned. Each will be provided with a simple small brass plate, saying, for example “ Archibald James Lester - Lest we forget.” We’ll record the planting, note the parent oak and tend and keep an eye on them. So we are looking back 300 years to when the parent oaks were planted and creating “new” ancestor oaks from their acorns for centuries in the future. We’ll tend them, care for them and replace them if they don’t survive in a way we never could for those young men when they didn’t survive.
• It’s a commitment to the past, to remembering the fallen, each one a tragedy. It’s a commitment to the future, to keep a mark of the sacrifices of these young men, where we can see them daily, nod and tip our hat in respect as a matter of routine. These men made a commitment to serve their King, their country, their fellow comrades, and their community as part of that. The least we can do is remember that commitment with one of our own. A commitment to life, something living that will last centuries.
• In 500 years time, these will be magnificent oaks, giant guardians of Sherborne, each one specifically named after the village’s lost sons, each English oak providing a remarkable habitat for nature, defining the local landscape again, just as the oaks dotted around the locale do so today. What else can you do today that will leave a mark, change the environment for the positive in 500 years time? The shortened lives of these young men can continue to have purpose, overlooking the community they came from. Guardians indeed, not forgotten.

So, due to a NT policy regarding dedicating trees to individuals we can no longer plant these on NT land. So be it. All I can do its shrug, and find a way forward. I have been knocking on doors and have found home for most of the 17 “guardians”, as follows:

1. Sherborne House will kindly provide spaces for 3 oaks, associated with young men who worked in and around the House. Thank you Sherborne House residents!
2. Mr Ejiofor is considering spaces in memory of John Houlton (the young man killed by the Japanese in WW2 that I recently wrote about) and John Houlton’s uncle, Charles Freeman. Both these men were associated with Mill Hill Farm and hopefully we can plant them to be guardians at the entrance to the village. Thank you, Mr Ejiofor!
3. Dawn Tremaine has offered space for an oak beside her house. Thank you Dawn!
4. I’ll take 3 for my garden by the Brook.
5. Stephen and Rachel have committed to take one or two at the bottom of Magpie Alley. Thank you both!

So… I need 6 more spaces. I know this is a big commitment, and space will be needed, so if you don’t have the space, I understand, but please put your thinking caps on. These oaks need to be planted in the next couple of months.

I have a further request. These saplings will require some guards and each a brass plate and that costs money. If you could spare a couple of quid to help pay for these things I’d be grateful. I’ve had some donations already but a little more is needed. Every penny helps and will only be spent on this project, now.

When we are all sorted we’ll plant these trees together so I’ll need a small work party in late January/early Feb. We’ll plant the tree, fix some smart protectors, then bow our heads and say some appropriate respectful words about each man. I’ll produce a sheet noting the location, the name, and where the parent acorn came from.

If it helps to make the point that these men are our men, and that they were members of our community I have tracked down from census returns where some of them lived, as follows:

• Ernest Cyphus, aged 27, lived at 27 Sherborne. He was a farm labourer.
• Albert Johnson, aged 19, lived at 55 Sherborne, son of a herdsman on the local estate.
• Edward Larner, aged 30, lived at 40 Sherborne. He was a stone mason and left a wife and at least two daughters.
• Archibald Lester, aged 23. He lived at 35 Sherborne. A member of the famous 8th Bn of the Gloucestershire Regiment, renowned for their fierce fighting.
• Thomas Mathews, aged 25. He lived at 52 Sherborne and was employed as a painter decorator in Sherborne House.
• Albert Petrie aged 44. He lived at West Lodge and was a plasterer.

For context, the village of Sherborne has a history of planting oaks as a community, not just the ancient 300 year old ones dotted around the parkland. Century Wood, to the East of Northfield barn was planted with the help of village school children in 1900, planting oaks interspersed with ash to make the oaks grow tall. Other trees were planted around the school in more recent years. We are simply carrying on that tradition, prizing these trees as part of our heritage.

I know you will help if you can with either space for a tree or a small donation. Let’s make this happen. Lest we forget. Imagine 17 giant oaks here in Sherborne in 500 years time, each one named after a lost young man, the environment and life it provides created by us today. What else can you do today that makes the world a better place in 500 years time?

"A community grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in"