Wellingtonia 121

An unusually formed Wellingtonia captured in the gardens of Fitznells Manor Surgery, in the course of a stroll in and around Bourne Hall, in the wake of the capture of No.120, noticed at reference 1 below.

But to start at the beginning, I crossed over the road from Ewell Castle School, into the large graveyard attached to St. Mary's church, a church which sports an additional, detached church tower. I now know that the present, 19th century church replaced a derelict church, the extra tower being all that is left of this last.

Greeted on arrival by a tall, if slender, coastal redwood.

Not being too confident about my identification, I took an evidential snap of a twig.

Which seems to agree quite well with this snap lifted from the Oregon plantsite at reference 3.. The work of one Gerald D. Carr, who appears be a very serious photographer of plants.

A bit further down, a handsome yew tree, which took me back to the days of yew chasing, for which see reference 8. More than five years ago now.

Then a fine show of primroses. The snap above fails to give much of the idea.

A handsome but unidentified pine, one of a pair.

Followed by a clump of what appeared to be coastal redwoods, perhaps the subject of some neo-natal accident.

And another, this one confirmed by snapping a frond which happened to be at eye level, very much the same as the two snaps of same above. Clearly one of the local big cheeses of days gone by had a thing for coastals.

And so to Fitznells of the opening snap. Confused by the unusual shape, I took the precaution of picking up a fallen twig (right in the snap above) to compare with a more regular Wellingtonia, previously scored, in Bourne Hall (right). So confirming the sighting.

After which I came across another Wellingtonia of unusual formation. Perhaps, in this case, a mid-life crisis.

On into Bourne Hall itself to make sure that the library was still there, which it was, although there was neither McCormac nor McGahern to be found on the fiction shelves. And the café had spread through the windows onto the park beyond. Complete with new benches with interesting supports. Not exactly fakes but interesting all the same.

PS 1: Conifercourt Holdings, mentioned at reference 2 below, have moved to somewhere else in the village. Would an accountant be able to make more of their account than I am?

PS 2: in the course of all this I got muddled up about whether sequoias were cypresses or cedars. I think they have moved about over the years, but current wisdom has that they are cypresses. Presumably named for the same reasons as Cyprian of reference 9. See references 4 thru 7.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/wellingtonia-120.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitznells_Manor. At one point owned by the appropriately names Conifercourt Holdings Ltd.

Reference 3: https://oregonflora.org/taxa/index.php?tid=8358.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressaceae.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrus.

Reference 8: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/albury-two.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-apple-tree.html.