This is my absolutely favourite Much Wenlock place (apart from home and the allotment), and it’s just across the road from the house. The Linden Walk borders the Gaskell (Linden) Field, and until the 1960s, steam trains would have been chuffing past just a few metres to the right of the tree cutting sign. In Victorian times there used to be an Olympic Special that every year brought in hundreds of spectators to watch the July Olympian Games masterminded by the town’s doctor, William Penny Brookes. The handsome station was only a hundred yards behind the point where I’m standing to take this photo.
Dr Brookes was also responsible for bringing the railway to Wenlock and for nagging his friends into helping him plant this double row of lime trees (Tilia x europaea). This was done in the 1860s, and I wonder if he foresaw then how lovely it would be. I’m guessing he would. He was a man of vision and a great believer in devising means to cultivate both the physical and mental well being of the townsfolk.
Apart from being a physician, he was also a keen botanist and, before taking over the town’s medical practice from his father, he had studied herbalism at the University of Padua. Doubtless he would have known that preparations of lime flowers have strong sedative and pain relieving properties, a remedy to be treated with some caution.
I’m also sure he had in mind the blissful effect of simply wandering beneath an avenue of limes on a hot June day, absorbing the soothing green shade and breathing in the delicious fragrance of the trees’ inconspicuous cascades of blossom. Now the trees are at peak leafiness they create a continuous arcaded canopy. The small hermaphroditic flowers also produce nectar which means there are bees. Blackbirds and squirrels forage round the roots. There is birdcall in the treetops, and even though the tree cutting sign suggests the barking of chainsaws, there was only quietness when I took the photo. The trimmers of the lime trees’ epicormic growth must have gone to lunch. You can see the effect they have had if you compare the trees with those in the second photo taken the day before. While the overgrowth is boskily attractive it can get out of hand; limes are prone to fungal diseases, and so are probably best protected by improving ventilation.
In fact the continued good health of the Linden Walk it taken very seriously. Cricket club supporters and bowling club members are no longer allowed to drive their cars along the avenue as they were wont to do, an activity that threatened to compact the tree roots. In fact we’ve been told by a Professor of Lime Trees that the trees could live another 150 years if we look after them. What a treasure Dr Brookes left behind – for us and a few more generations yet.
Tish Farrell 
Gorgeous roof interpretation. Think leafy rooves may be the best 🙂
Glad you like it, Becky 🙂
and this beauty is just across from you? How wonderful. Do they fruit.?
No fruit just little seed capsules.
Probably a good thing or there would be a big mess.
That’s a very good point 🙂
Smashing, and what a marvelous shot of the squirrel. Well done, you.
A walk I intend to take one day – after a cup of tea at your spot, of course.
🙂
That would be so fine, Ark 🙂
Lovely’
🙂
Beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL.
Many thanks, Ron 🙂
What refreshing place to go for a walk on a hot summer’s day! I am glad to hear how people take care of those stately linden trees, Tish.
Thank you, Peter. It is good to know that people are caring for their trees, I agree.
What a blessing to have such a man of vision! We need more with this sort of vision. I would walk there regularly just as I do at the park here. There are places in France where the trees line both sides of the road this way and they’re so beautiful. Thanks for a lovely sight before I head in to work, into the bowels of consumerism. 🙂
janet
So happy to send you off to work with lime tree thoughts. Hope you had a good day. And a better one tomorrow 🙂
Besides being Sunday tomorrow, it will be my last day of work for about 3 weeks. I’m heading to Wyoming soon and that will nourish my soul mightily. Only thing better would be if my husband could come, too.
That sounds like a fine trip coming up, though it’s a shame your OH can’t make it.
It is. I wish he could be there, too.
Looks like a very special walk. Lime trees are one of my favourites. Have yours been covered with flowers this year? (the lighter leaf things with little round berry things hanging underneath). Ours is covered. I can’t remember it doing it quite so spectacularly before.
Yes lots of those strange little flowers this year. They’re often not at all noticeable, apart from the scent, and before you know it. they’re all blowing to pieces.
Worth the wordy overrun, Tish. What a wonderful spot
What a wonderful man, we could do with a lot more philanthropists now.
He did spend all his wife’s money on all his projects. But he did some amazing things with it including a library for agricultural workers 🙂
Love the first photo – and your Linden walk.
Glad it hits the spot 🙂
What a beautiful bower to walk through.
And in all seasons too 🙂
It looks like perfection. Just the scent alone would do it for me.
Very therapeutic.
Dr Brooke’s was indeed a man of vision. And what a beautiful vision he left behind for all to enjoy
My goodness! What a wonder it must be to walk through.
It is a very soothing place to walk 🙂
A Professor of Lime Trees- is that the squirrel? He looks highly intelligent and appreciative. 🙂 🙂
Perhaps he’s the professor’s alter ego. He was quite elderly, I think, when he paid the trees a visit a few years ago. I was very surprised that there was such a being – someone who had made a life’s work of studying lime trees. Rather heartening 🙂
Yes, it is 🙂
That squirrel certainly appreciates all the work the good doctor put in. 😀 … there’s nothing like walking along a tree-covered (or almost) path. 🙂
yes, indeed. Lots of happy squirrels. It’s interesting too that we humans find solace in growing tunnels.
It’s probably our Hobbit gene. 🙂
Of course!
A great pleasure seeing such a walk in the proximity of your home. Dr Brookes sounds like a great treasure to the community. We have had a number of such enthusiasts here, and I am always grateful for their foresight when visiting the landscape they improved.
Good morning, Shimon. I’m glad to show you my local sights – squirrels instead of hyraxes 🙂 There’s somehow added value to the pleasure too, when you know some past thoughtful person acted purely for the good of the thing, and not simply to be noticed.
Oh, I have a great fondness for squirrels, but we don’t see them much around here…
I can understand why this is one of your favourite Wenlock walks – it is beautiful….:)
🙂
So beautiful, and so green. As for forethought, hallelujah! In the 1920s a Boken Hill man, Albert Morris, an employee of the mine, envisaged a regeneration area round the town, a belt of the landscape as it ought to be. What a gift! I first heard about him when I was paying my electricity bill in Moruya 1200 km away.
Thank goodness for such generous-spirited souls.