THE EVENT IS NOT AT THE ABOVE CORDINATORS BUT THE CENTER OF NORTON COMMON NATURE RESERVE. PLEASE USE CAR PARK AS SHOWN IN WAYPOINTS
IT MAY BE WET AND MUDDY IN PLACES THERE ARE NO PUBLIC TOILETS ON THE COMMON NEAREST IN TOWN CENTER Location is for Geocaching Visual Only LOG ONLY ? NO TRACKABLES PLEASE
THE FRIENDS OF NORTON COMMON ARE PLANNING TO PLANT 350 NEW TREES OR HEDGING
THIS IS NATIONAL TREE PLANTING DAY PART OF THE WOODLAND TRUST DAY BUT HERE IN SUNNY LETCHWORTH IS NOT NEW AS YOU CAN SEE BELOW WITH THE TASK OF PLANTING
Arbor Day procession, 8th March 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Arbor Day walk c.1911
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Outside the Skittles Inn, Arbor Day walk, 8th March 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Rider Haggard at Arbor Day 1909
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Early Garden City residents, including Ebenezer Howard, planting trees, Arbor Day 8th March 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Norah Clark and Bob Westaway at Arbor Day, 8th March 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Arbor Day, 8th March 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Certificate for participating in Arbor Day, 1913
First Garden City Heritage Museum
Arbor Day was created by J Sterling Morton in 1872, in Nebraska, USA. The day encourages the planting and care of trees. This fitted very well with the Garden City plan and principles which included tree planting schemes – 100,000 trees were thought to have been planted by 1909, only six years after the start of the Garden City.
Famous visitors
The first Arbor Day held in Letchworth Garden City was on 29th February 1908. Guest John Cockburn (former Premier of South Australia and Australian Arbor Day founder) planted the first tree, followed by Ebenezer Howard. The years following, the day was held in either February or March, and continued until World War One. Arbor days received some famous visitors including the author Rider Haggard (in 1909), horticulturalist C S Cooper, artist Walter Crane, and playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw.
The day would begin with a procession led by children, often in costume, who would then each plant a tree. The girl leading the first procession was described as wearing:
‘a wreath of ivy, in which a single white flower has been set, her neck encircled by a chain of acorn cups’.
The children would sing ‘The Planting Song’ by Letchworth resident Harold Hare.
THE PLANTING SONG
‘Children, come and join our band,
Sing our planting ditty;
Joy in heart and spade in hand,
Marching through the City.
Trees we plant for shady street,
Trees for uplands bare,
Trees to cast a fragrance sweet
On the Summer air.
We will plant for days unseen,
For the future City;
Then shall walls of wood and green
On walls of brick take pity;
Sturdy Ash and feathery Larch
Roofs will be o’ertopping;
From the Oak-trees leafy arch
Acorns will be dropping.
Infant trees of Fir and Beech,
In the soil now treading,
Some day up to Heaven shall reach
Giant arms out-spreading;
Then will they, with years and care,
Flourish like our City,
Sheltering people of the air,
Nestlings sweet and pretty.
Birds and men will bless this day,
And us who now assemble,
When they see the Pine-trees sway
And hear the Poplars tremble.
Therefore, children, join our band,
Sing our planting ditty,
Joy in heart and spade in hand,
Marching through the City. ‘
Each child received a certificate for taking part. The trees were planted at various locations including Common View on the first Arbor Day, and Norton School. Trees such as fir, chestnut, poplar and birch were planted as well as Norton Common Nature Reserve
Arbor Day revived