Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England, about southwest of the town of

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

. Managed by

Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

, it is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom. Planted in the heyday of Victorian plant hunting in the mid-19th century as part of the

Westonbirt House Westonbirt House is a country house in Gloucestershire, England, about southwest of the town of Tetbury. It belonged to the Holford family from 1665 until 1926. The first house on the site was an Elizabethan manor house. The Holfords r ...

estate, the arboretum forms part of a site which is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest.

History

There is evidence of

coppicing Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, pro ...

at the site from 1292. First use of the name "" was in 1309. This was taken from Weston, a settlement to the west of Bowldown Road, and Birt from then lords of the manor, the Bret family. The arboretum was established in 1829 by

Robert Stayner Holford Robert Stayner Holford (1808–1892), of Westonbirt, in the village of Weston Birt, co. Gloucestershire, MP for East Gloucestershire, was a wealthy landowner, gardening and landscaping enthusiast, and an art collector. With his vast wealth, he r ...

and was later extended by his son George Lindsay Holford. After the death of George in 1926, ownership of the arboretum passed to his

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an ...

, the fourth

Earl of Morley Earl of Morley, of Morley in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for John Parker, 2nd Baron Boringdon. At the same time he was created Viscount Boringdon, of North Molton in the County o ...

, and eventually to the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

in 1956 and Forestry England in 2019. The Holford family's mansion,

, became a girls' boarding school in 1927 when it was separated from the arboretum. Westonbirt Arboretum backs onto the Highgrove Estate of

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

Today

Westonbirt Arboretum comprises some 15,000

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s, with 2,500 species of tree from all over the world, covering an area of approximately . Its 17 miles (27 km) of marked paths are popular with visitors, and provide access to a wide variety of rare plants. There are two main areas to explore. The Old Arboretum is a carefully designed landscape offering beautiful vistas, stately avenues, and a host of rare and exotic trees from across the globe dating back to the 1850s. Silk Wood is a very different experience: although it also contains many exotic plantings, at its heart is a traditional working woodland, dating back to the 13th century. Dogs are welcome in Silk Wood but not allowed in The Old Arboretum. Throughout the arboretum, each specimen tree is labelled, either on the trunk or a low-hanging branch. Blue labels indicate Westonbirt's ''"champion trees"'', the tallest or largest of their kind in Britain; in 2011 there were 79 of these. The arboretum is managed by Forestry England, which also manages

Bedgebury Pinetum Bedgebury National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is a recreational and conservational arboretum managed by Forestry England that was established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925 and is now recognised as the most ...

in Kent. Westonbirt Arboretum is supported by the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum, a registered charity which formed in 1985.

Location

Westonbirt Arboretum is in

on the

A433 The A433 road is an A road and primary route in Gloucestershire, England. Route It starts at a junction with the A46 at Dunkirk north of junction 18 of the M4 and northeast of Chipping Sodbury. It runs northeast for to a junction wit ...

approximately southwest of Tetbury, at

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Music and Festivals

From 2003 to 2005 the arboretum hosted Britain's first designer-led garden festival: Westonbirt Festival of the Garden. On 16 July 2011, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

held a concert for

Gravity Tour The Gravity Tour is the eleventh concert tour by Irish boy band, Westlife. The tour supported their eleventh studio album, ''Gravity''. The tour visits Europe, Asia and Africa. The tour was listed 55th in 2011 Worldwide First Quarter ticket sal ...

supporting their album

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

. Also in 2011, ''Treefest'' was launched. Following several successful years of the Festival of the Tree event, Westonbirt Arboretum refreshed the popular August bank holiday event with camping, music and more activities celebrating trees and nature.
Treefest Christmas and the spectacle of bare, sculpted trees in winter is celebrated at the Enchanted Christmas event. From the end of November and throughout December, an evening illuminated trail runs throughout the Old Arboretum, highlighting the beauty of Westonbirt's trees in winter.

References

External links

*{{Official website
Friends of Westonbirt ArboretumThe Westonbirt map
– interactive map with ability to search for and highlight particular species
Images of Westonbirt Arboretum
at monumentaltrees.com 1829 establishments in England Arboreta in England Botanical gardens in England Grade I listed parks and gardens in Gloucestershire Tourist attractions in Gloucestershire Cotswolds