The Added Value of Trees
This is the story of three oak trees that I have known for nearly 50 years.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, three trees (The Trinity) were part of a field boundary and hedgerow. The sort of trees one would walk past on autumn blackberry picking expeditions and hardly even notice.
Just look at them now! In all their majestic autumn colour, creating a magnificent gateway to the beautiful linear park at Beaulieu, Chelmsford. I visited them again today as I used to at the age of eleven or twelve when picking blackberries and rambling was a Sunday treat for us at New Hall School.
They seemed happy to me and they are certainly healthy and well cared for. Their surroundings have changed from agricultural fields to a huge and impressive residential development by Countryside Properties with (so far) a primary and a secondary school, a neighbourhood centre, contemporary housing by renowned architects including Gardner Stewart and Tate Hindle and the fabulous, award winning landscaped gardens by Randall Thorpe. www.randallthorpe.co.uk
So, how did these three trees survive the bulldozers?
It was all down to the original Concept Masterplan by Andrew Martin Associates and the subsequent designers who developed the detail of the masterplan as well as all those involved in the delivery of this development.
Even before any drawings were done, the Countryside Properties Strategic team, of which I was part, carried out a detailed site assessment which included identifying views and vistas, landscape character, hedgerows and trees - all as one would expect. I remember the team approaching ‘The Trinity’ and we all agreed that these three trees must be retained and incorporated into the design because they already formed a natural gateway at the end of a field track from what was then Belstead Farm. Their particular alignment and combined canopy formed a beautiful double arch which we all recognised as a significant and potentially valuable feature that might be woven into the masterplan.
Set out below is the Vision Statement for Beaulieu, written before any detailed design work began:
‘Beaulieu, on the north eastern edge of Chelmsford, will be a new urban quarter with its own unique identity, rich heritage and links to the past. With New Hall and its estate parkland at the centre of the development and a network of mature hedgerows, meadows and woodlands permeating throughout the built environment, heritage and landscape will provide the backdrop to the new development.
The three farms - Lodge Farm, Belstead Farm and Bulls Lodge Farm - that once served New Hall provide opportunities to root the development in its location, respect the historical value and provide meaningful reference points within Beaulieu. The farms and/or their settings are connected by landscape corridors, hedges and ditches and will be connected visually by creating long and short views and vistas. In this way a network of existing features is maintained and protected. Overlaid on this network will be a network of new interconnected urban spaces and new landscapes.
These networks form the distinctive and unique framework within which five strategic landscape zones will sit. These zones (formal gardens, informal parkland, tree avenues, meadows and woodland hamlets) each relate to existing landscape features.
