Thanks to Joanna Brogan-Higgins for sending this sad photo of the large Lebanon Cedar from Sunbury park, which lost a large branch after heavy rain in January.
Lebanon Cedars are typically trees which were planted as a prestige item in large grounds of country houses. Sunbury park was land belonging to the large Sunbury Park House, owned by the Arden family. It was a grand house dating from the 1850s. It had 40 bedrooms and a ballroom, but during the Great War it was used as an officers mess and the house was left to fall into disrepair. You can still find remains of some of the walls and foundations if you walk in the wooded area above the ha-ha.
So when you next walk in Sunbury park, think how lucky we are to be linked to the history of a grand old house and treasure these old trees while they are still healthy.