What does the Great Storm of 1987, Paloma Faith, Paul Weller, The Gruffalo and 1,000,000 Christmas lights have in common?
All have played a significant part in 100 years of Bedgebury Pinetum, which has transformed itself from Victorian pleasure grounds into one of Kent’s most popular visitor attractions – all while protecting the world’s conifers from extinction – as senior reporter Lauren Abbott found out.
With London suffocating under plumes of industrial smog and faced with the mammoth task of rebuilding after the First World War, conservation staff at Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens desperately needed a healthier environment for a newly planned conifer collection.
Their attention turned to the Garden of England and land near Goudhurst where they – together with a recently formed Forestry Commission – felt an abundance of fresh air, rolling countryside and mix of soil types could provide a safe haven for the new botanical collection all within close proximity to London.
A young William Dallimore – an existing botanist at Kew – was appointed first curator and with a prestigious career at the Royal gardens already under his belt he dreamt of planting an arboretum that would grow as many of the world’s cone-bearing trees as the great British climate would allow.
He desired a testing ground for new species, a gene bank for rare and endangered varieties and the means to study them all closely without needing to go abroad.
Ground within the former Beresford family estate was cleared and in March 1925 the first 315 saplings were planted.
Fast forward 100 years and Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest is blooming with nearly 12,000 specimen trees now thriving in 350 acres of glorious Kent countryside – boasting the largest collection of conifers on one site anywhere in the world.
It is for want of a better description – a fully-fledged ‘tree zoo’.
And as climate change, illegal logging, pests and diseases continue to threaten conifers with extinction, Bedgebury is serving as a scientific sanctuary while its staff also travel to places such as Malawi, Bosnia and Australia actively involved in the fight for global conifer conservation.
“In their natural habitat conifers are one of the most threatened group of animals or plants on the planet with over a third threatened with extinction” explains Daniel Luscombe, collections manager.
While the two remain close, Bedgebury’s formal partnership with Kew ended in 1965 when its activities moved to Wakehurst Place in neighbouring Sussex.
There have been other changes too – not least the devastating impact of the Great Storm in 1987 which swept away many of Bedgebury’s older trees, made way for other new and especially rare conifers and dramatically changed the way in which species were grouped and planted across the site.
But it’s not just Bedgebury’s planting to have diversified.
Its appeal as a tourist attraction has sky-rocketed in recent years thanks to a colourful offering of events and activities that stretch far beyond getting a crash course in conifer conservation.
More than 500,000 visitors now come through its gates each year attracted not only to the picture-perfect backdrops but also the chance to enjoy some very unique experiences among the trees.
The Forest Live concert series has seen open spaces at Forestry England sites be repeatedly transformed into temporary outdoor music venues where Paul Weller, Paloma Faith, Madness, Keane, The Beautiful South, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Will Young are just some of the household names to have belted out their chart-topping hits at Bedgebury over the years, until concerns over sufficient parking inside the Grade 2 listed landscape in the event of a wet summer pushed the pause button on concerts in favour of other projects.
High-profile partnerships with the likes of children’s authors Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler and Magic Light Productions has given many families a strong connection with the woodland thanks to walking trails that have allowed little ones to bump into sculptures and virtual versions of their favourite storybook characters including The Gruffalo, Stick Man, Zog, Superworm and The Highway Rat.
For those with a desire to climb trees and not just look at them, there is the award-winning Go Ape attraction allowing adults and children of all ages to scramble through Bedgebury’s tree canopy via specially crafted high ropes courses.
While Christmas at Bedgebury, which has replaced the music concerts as one of its biggest events, is currently one of the most popular attractions in both the forest’s and the county’s festive calendar – which sees hundreds of thousands of visitors snap up tickets to marvel at the mile-long illuminated outdoor trail each winter, repeatedly giving it the top five stars on Tripadvisor.
There are also children’s play areas, cycling and mountain bike trails and hire, walking and running routes, regular parkrun events and an enormous cafe and visitor centre that was funded in 2006 by a Sport England grant designed to open more of the site to the wider public.
And with people’s mental health high on the nation’s agenda – and more of us taking an interest in self-care – sites like Bedgebury have responded providing a sanctuary for people looking to escape the stresses of every day life with forest bathing and wellbeing walking routes offering people the chance to actively pause and switch-off.
With the exception of Christmas Day – Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest is open from 8am every day.
Joathan Codd, Manager at Forestry England Bedgebury National Pinetum said Bedgebury has seen a ‘huge amount of change’ over the course its history but its work to protect the globe’s conifers remains at its heart.
He said: “First it was Victorian pleasure gardens with a collection of conifers that led to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Forestry Commission to found the national conifer collection in 1925. Since then it has been focused on growing trees, particularly conifers for science and conservation, and that originally appealed mainly to plant and tree experts. Over the years the beauty of the site has attracted more and more visitors from every walk of life.
“Today, over half a million people visit each year for the huge range of activities but conifer conservation remains at the heart of what we do. The Visitor Centre was built in 2006 and opened up the wider forest with play areas, running and cycle trails. In 2018 we hosted the first of our hugely popular Christmas at Bedgebury Christmas trails.
“To mark our Centenary and kick off the 100th birthday celebration events we are planning throughout the year, we will be planting a tree species that was planted by the first curator William Dallimore 100 years ago, almost to the day. The Japanese mountain hemlock will represent the seed collecting field work and expert propagation that Bedgebury National Pinetum carries out and builds on the partnership with Botanic Gardens Sydney and the Wollemi pine meta collection project.”
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