Wellingtonia 131

[‘It’s such a break from the stress of normal life,’ said Nina, 15, left; she is geocaching with Margot Leys, 24, right, a monitor or youth leader. Photograph: John Robertson/The Guardian]

Captured from yesterday's Guardian this morning over breakfast, when I noticed this good sized tree with enough foliage in view to identify it as a Wellingtonia.

On this occasion something very like - but not identical - to the printed image appeared online and I was able to capture it there, much better than taking my own snap from the printed image, recognisable but not much good. The caption was not quite the same either.

Eventually run down to a summer camp operation which operates from the Moor Park private school near Richards Castle, amongst other places. To judge from the Bing image response, the school looks like it might also be used for EFL flavoured holidays. The sort of thing that places like Cambridge and Canterbury are full of.

But no images of Wellingtonia in the grounds - although I can say that it is very much the sort of place that would have a Wellingtonia or two in the grounds. Street View no help on this occasion as the school is too far and too shielded from the public road (B4361).

[plenty of woods to the northwest of the school. Maybe children are still allowed to play in them. Maybe what we used to call wide games when I was a Boy Scout]

Richards Castle is a place, rather than a summer camp, although it is home to what is left of a very old castle. Bottom left in the snap from Ordnance Survey above.

See references 3, 4 and 5.

PS 1:  a little to the south east of Richards Castle. Google Images says not wind farm. So what is it? A substation? So far I have failed to find anything on the UK Power Networks portal operated by Opendatasoft.

PS 2: not at all sure that I am working the power portal properly, but it turns out that there is nothing to see here. The masts shown on the map are nothing to do with power and everything to do with a 'secure, 350-acre broadcast facility owned and operated by Encompass', which includes 25 masts - which agrees with OS. And it looks like they take their power supply seriously. No Heathrow-style outages here. The show must go on! See reference 6.

PS 3: as it happens, this particular puzzle was unlocked by Street View - where I was able to read the sign at the entrance on the B4362.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/wellingtonia-129-and-130.html.

Reference 2: 'You forget about phones' Children's summer camps facing an uncertain future - Jessica Murray, Guardian - 2025.

Reference 3: https://richardscastle.com/.

Reference 4: https://www.superweeks.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://www.moorpark.org.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.encompass.tv/woofferton/.

Group search key: wgc.