Interesting Sussex Trees

National Tree Week is brought to you by The Tree Council and partners. It’s a combination of conservation, volunteers and tree-lovers and marks the start of the annual tree planting season by planting thousands of trees and hedgerows. There are a large number of interesting Sussex trees. From old and fat to tall and champion, in order to celebrate National Tree Week, here are a few of our favourite Sussex trees.

The Queen Elizabeth I Oak – the fattest tree in Sussex 

In 2021, the Woodland Trust recorded the Queen Elizabeth Oak in Cowdray Park near Midhurst in West Sussex as the 3rd biggest sessile oak ever recorded (measuring its girth at 13.18 m – 2021). It is thought to be 600 to 700 years old and local legend says Queen Elizabeth I rested in its shade while hunting on the estate in 1591. You can walk to the tree from the Benbow Pond car park on the A272, just outside Easebourne. 

The Wilmington Yew 

The ancient watchers of Kingley Vale 

The magical, mystical trees of Kingley Vale are somewhere between 900 and 2000 years old (yew trees are apparently hard to date). The forest is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Viking warriors and is also believed to be one of the oldest yew forests in Europe. A walk around the forest feels otherworldly, as the tendrils, fingers, and arms of the trees twist and stretch around you. I did it at daybreak. It was ethereal.

The tallest tree in Sussex 

The tallest tree in Sussex is not without controversy. The tallest native tree was a beech tree at 44 metres tall at Newtimber near Devil’s Dyke but it’s not any more. There does not appear to be any recorded tallest tree at the moment, but there is a giant sequoia in the woods of Nymans Estate which was 51 metres high back in 2018 which may take the crown.

Leonardslee’s tallest straight species giant redwood was measured at 45.3m in 2019 and other contenders may be trees at Wakehurst, Borde Hill and Beauport Park in Hastings. This latter site is, or was, home to a 46 metre high giant sequoia, but we haven’t been able to confirm any data more recently than 2014.

UK’s tallest Christmas tree 

The Wakehurst Christmas tree used to be the tallest living Christmas tree in the UK at 37 m. However, it has been outgrown by a tree in Cragside, Northumberland which is 42 m. However, surely, the Wakehurst tree must still be the tallest living Christmas tree in Sussex.

There are plenty of other interesting trees at all of these sights, including this rock-growing yew:

”With its network of sprawling roots gripping the sand rock outcrop, this ancient yew tree in Bloomers Valley shows how life adapts and persists, not apart from challenge, but because of it”

Iain Parkinson, Head of Landscape and Horticulture, Wakehurst

The oldest tree in Sussex

There is a yew tree in a churchyard in Crowhurst near Hastings (not to be confused with the yew tree at Crowhurst in Surrey) that claims to be the oldest in Sussex. Other contenders for the title include the Sullington yew (West Sussex), the Wilmington yew (East Sussex), the Coldwaltham yew (West Sussex) and of course, the Kingley Vale yews.

The Preston Twins 

The Preston Twins were a pair of English elms thought to be over 400 years old having been planted in about 1613. They were believed to be among the oldest and largest English elm trees in the world and were 30 m high and had a width of 7.0 m. In 2017, one of them suffered storm damage and by 2018/19 it was suffering from Dutch elm disease. It had to be cut down in December 2019. In 2023, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s vision of the ‘Gilded Elm’ was unveiled. It incorporates the trunk of the lost elm which has been stripped back and painted in gold leaf inside and tinted black outside.

Champion trees of Sussex 

Champion trees are the largest trees of their species growing within the British Isles, characterised by being the tallest or having the largest trunk girth. At Borde Hill Garden in West Sussex, there are over seventy-three champion trees – the largest collection in the country and of national importance. Throughout the 240 acres at Leonardslee, there are forty-one county champions and another fourteen trees that have been designated as future champions.

Chanctonbury Ring 

A clump of trees with a big backstory. Legend has it that the Devil created Chanctonbury and that you can summon him if you walk around the clump of trees a certain number of times. Chanctonbury was also the site of an Iron Age fort and the Romans were there for a while too. It’s said to be haunted.

• They were planted in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria’s Royal Diamond Jubilee.
• 3,060 trees were planted at the cost of just over £12.
• The trees were 1200 Scots pine, 800 spruce, 400 larch, 400 birch, 299 sycamore, 20 lime and 40 Austrian pine which cost £12.10s.4d. Total with labour £38. It was financed by Sir Henry Lane of Middleton and General Fitzhugh. Each arm of the V is 165 yard long.
• There is a pot of gold at the top of the V.
• There was previously also an ‘R’ which was removed during the war because the Luftwaffe were using it to line up to London.
• The R didn’t take particularly well and was removed in the 19th century.
• You can see the V quite clearly from Crowborough.
• During the war pilots used this as a marker to show they were on the correct route on returning from bombing raids.
• It was originally an A for Albert.
• It’s V for victory for WWII. 

An E was also later planted near Firle but suffered from dieback.

Bayham Abbey

In 2020, this beech tree growing out of the alter at Bayham Abbey ruins was on the Woodland Trust’s shortlist of candidates for Tree of the Year (the yew at Wilmington was also on the list). The beech tree is thought to be nearly 200 years and was badly damaged in the 1987 storm. However, in the last few years it has been damaged again as you can see in the photo. And yet, it lives on! What a tree!

Petworth’s Ancient Tree Trail  

If you’re on the hunt for old oaks and interesting Sussex trees, head to Petworth Park which has some of the oldest and largest trees in the country. Downlad the trail map from the Petworth House website and Look out for the Beelzebub Oak tucked up against the wall.

Petworth Park: Ancient Trees, Tailless Dogs & Deer

The Barlavington yew 

Just outside the tiny hamlet of Barlavington is a yew thought to be one of the largest yews to be found outside of a churchyard or woodland setting. In 2013 it was measured by the Ancient Yew Group at  777cm  at the ground. But how old is it?