Cemeteries and red oaks

click photo to enlarge

A new crematorium is currently being built near Surfleet in Lincolnshire. Its purpose is to supplement the existing crematoria in the area and reduce the journey times for funerals in the south of the county. One of the first things that the contractors did, after a service road had been built, was to plant two hundred trees and a kilometre of hedging on the ten acre site. As with most such facilities the aim is to surround the main building withattractive parkland. Reading a newspaper report about progress on the development I noted that hornbeam has been chosen as the tree to form an avenue from the main road to the crematorium building and chapel. Cemeteries and crematoria are good places to go in search of interesting trees. The desire to beautify the place where people are laid to rest leads to careful consideration of the disposition and type of trees that feature in the grounds. Boston cemetery has a big avenue of mixed trees featuring both pines and limes. Long Sutton cemetery is reached by an avenue of lime trees. The much smaller cemetery in the village of Bicker has a couple of noteworthy silver birches.

I was in Boston cemetery the other day having a look at the architecture. However, I also took some time to see the kinds of trees that were planted there. The older part of the site is something of a wildlife haven, and here the trees have, for the most part, reached maturity. It was in this section that I came across the red oak (a tree of North American origin) shown in the main photograph. It's deeply cut and pointed leaves were begining to show the hues of autumn. These are appearing a little later than usual due to the recent mild weather. In an area that seemed to have closely packed graves of the 1930s and 1940s I came upon a copper leaved tree that I foolishly didn't take the time to identify - is it a beech? Perhaps its something else entirely. I'll check if I visit there again.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37.1mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.9
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On