Nuneham Courtney - Harcourt Arboretum (Oxfordshire)

Coast Redwood

Giant Redwood

Giant Redwood (lightning strike)
Giant Redwood	Young Coast Redwood
Walking into the Harcourt Arboretum and standing amongst the collection of huge trees, one could be forgiven for feeling that one might have wandered into a forest of prehistoric Giants. The varied trees in this part of the Arboretum were nearly all planted over a hundred years ago and this certainly shows in their size. The biggest of all by far, of course, are the Giant Redwoods, closely followed by a Coast Redwood with a girth of 5.55m! Also worthy of note is the enourmous Monkey Puzzle tree, whose trunk typically has the look of an elephant's leg. Although they were certainly not over-crowded, their closeness meant that it was difficult to take full photographs that would do justice to these marvellous examples of Redwood trees. Harcourt Arboretum is part of the University of Oxford and is home to ten Giant and six Coast Redwoods. Five of the Coast Redwoods are young examples that were planted in 1992 and can be found growing in the Acer Glade. Harcourt run a free school education programme, and during the visit an employee of the Arboretum was measuring one of the trees ready for a school visit the next day. The children were to be making their very own tree measuring devices from paper and a plumb line, and she was testing an example in readiness. Sadly, the tree that would have been largest has suffered a lightning strike, and as can be seen from the photograph, has had the top cut away cleanly and roped back together. It will be interesting to see how it fares as it throws up new main stems from the existing branches.
The Acer Glade
Giant Redwood (photograph by Miranda)

Common Names and Latin Name	No.	Label	Latitude and Longitude		OS National Grid	Elevation (above sea-level)	Height	Girth	Date Measured
			WGS84	OSGB36
Giant Redwood, Wellingtonia Sequoiadendron giganteum	1		N51.68418 W1.19973	N51.68367 W1.20149	SU 55198 98676	294ft (89.6m)	40.5m	5.95m	July 2006
	2		N51.68413 W1.19924	N51.68366 W1.19775	SU 55457 98678	289ft (88.1m)	36.5m	4.75m	July 2006
Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens	3		N51.68371 W1.19960	N51.68324 W1.19811	SU 55432 98631	290ft (88.4m)	31.3m	5.55m	July 2006
Giant Redwood, Wellingtonia Sequoiadendron giganteum	4		N51.68360 W1.19994	N51.68313 W1.19845	SU 55409 98618	332ft (101.2m)	28.5m	6.3m	July 2006
	5		N51.68320 W1.20014	N51.68273 W1.19865	SU 55395 98574	257ft (78.4m)	38.3m	6.6m	July 2006
	6		N51.68343 W1.20027	N51.68296 W1.19878	SU 55386 98599	266ft (81.1m)		4.62m	July 2006
	7		N51.68311 W1.19863	N51.68264 W1.19714	SU 55500 98565	268ft (81.7m)	32m	7.2m	July 2006
	8		N51.68271 W1.19877	N51.68224 W1.19728	SU 55491 98520	276ft (84.5m)	20.3m	2.84m	July 2006
	9	19811781.1	N51.68246 W1.19887	N51.68199 W1.19738	SU 55484 98492	295ft (89.9m)	20.1m	1.7m	July 2006
	10		N51.68250 W1.19866	N51.68203 W1.19717	SU 55499 98497	261ft (79.6m)		6.8m	July 2006
Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens	11	V0003103	N51.68286 W1.19715	N51.68239 W1.19566	SU 55603 98538	265ft (80.8m)		1.26m	July 2006
	12	V0003303-A	N51.68251 W1.19664	N51.68204 W1.19515	SU 55638 98500	268ft (81.7m)			July 2006
	13		N51.68252 W1.19699	N51.68205 W1.19550	SU 55614 98500	265ft (80.8m)			July 2006
	14	V0003103	N51.68304 W1.19764	N51.68257 W1.19615	SU 55568 98558	309ft (94.2m)			July 2006
	15	V0003103	N51.68325 W1.19750	N51.68278 W1.19601	SU 55578 98581	294ft (89.6m)			July 2006
Giant Redwood, Wellingtonia Sequoiadendron giganteum	16	1981178.1-C	N51.68397 W1.19841	N51.68350 W1.19692	SP 55494 00452	271ft (82.6m)		1.7m	July 2006
Tree No. 4 - lightning strike      Girth was measured at 1.5 metres from ground
The order is roughly the sequence they would be encountered travelling anti-clockwise around the gardens.