Planting the King’s Tree

Planting the King’s Tree: celebrating 400 years since King James 1st visit to Hoghton Tower

2017 is the 400th anniversary of the visit of King James 1st to Hoghton Tower in Lancashire. As part of the celebrations of this important event, and with the support of the Lancashire Environmental Fund, a commemorative tree will be planted in the beautiful Wilderness Garden at Hoghton Tower. This memorial tree will grow alongside trees planted over the years by famous visitors to the Tower including HRH George V in 1915, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1986 and more recently a beautiful Oak Tree was planted in memory of the local footballing legend, Sir Tom Finney. A time capsule will be buried at the same time all with the help of children from Roebuck Primary School in Preston.

The planting ceremony will take place at Hoghton Tower on 21st March 2017  at Hoghton Tower. The children from Roebuck School will be welcomed by Hoghton Tower’s volunteers and invited to write their own little messages to mark this event all of which will be placed in the time capsule. They will then be guided to the gardens and, with the expert guidance of the tree supplier JA Jones & Sons Ltd (Southport), will be asked to help with the planting of the tree.

Says Elena Faraoni, Trustee of the Hoghton Tower Preservation Trust “We were looking for different ways to mark the anniversary of King James 1st visit to Hoghton Tower and planting a tree just felt like the right thing to do. All the children involved in this experience will hopefully remember this day and come back to visit their tree and perhaps even come back to help dig up the time capsule in 50 years time! What a great way to celebrate the event, remember Hoghton Tower and help the environment as well! We want to thank the Lancashire Environment Fund for their generous support for this project”

Mr Moss, History teacher at Roebuck Primary, said: “The year 4 children have been looking forward to the tree planting for weeks – the opportunity to be part of history doesn't happen very often.  This has sparked an interest in the time period and they will be doing some follow-up work in school.  They definitely have a taste for history as a result of getting 'hands on' with it."