Joseph Tubb (1805–1879) was a

maltster Malting is the process of steeping, germinating and drying grain to convert it into malt. The malt is mainly used for brewing or whisky making, but can also be used to make malt vinegar or malt extract. Various grains are used for malting, most ...

from

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England who created the Poem Tree at

Wittenham Clumps Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district. The higher of the two, ...

, which died in the 1990s and finally collapsed in July 2012.

Biography

Tubb lived at Lavender Cottage in

Warborough Warborough is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford and about south of Oxford. The parish also includes the hamlet of Shillingford, south of Warborough beside the River Thames. History The toponym has ...

, a village near the town of Dorchester. He wished to become a

wood carver Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

, but his father convinced him to become a maltster. He lived a country life as a bachelor. Joseph Tubb opposed the enclosure of the commons and pulled down fences in rebellion against this. He spent a short time in the Oxford gaol. Tubb's main legacy was to carve a poem on a large beech tree on the eastern side of Castle Hill at Wittenham Clumps.Poem Tree
, Northmoor Trust. He took a tent and a ladder to Castle Hill and spent the summers of 1844 and 1845 carving the letters of a 20-line poem. The poem demonstrates Joseph Tubb's passion for the Oxfordshire countryside. Discrepancies in wording between a written original and those on the tree are said to be because he carved from memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tubb, Joseph 1805 births 1879 deaths People from Oxfordshire English environmentalists English prisoners and detainees English male poets 19th-century English poets 19th-century English male writers