The Beech Avenue

 avenue, interesting place

On inheriting Kingston Lacy in 1835, one of the first things William John Bankes (1776-?) did was to have planted a beech avenue lining the road from near the house’s entrance drive to beyond Badbury Rings. The road was a turnpike and the Bankes family enjoyed the revenue from it. The avenue was a birthday gift to William John’s mother, Frances, and there were 365 trees on one side of the road for each day of the year and 366 on the other, for a leap year. Today the road is the B3082, the main route between Wimborne and Blandford. The trees are showing signs of age and disease. The National Trust have replaced some of them with hornbeams, which are just as attractive but are better able to withstand the disadvantages of being alongside a busy road. –Adapted from www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2013/12/treasures-of-dorset-the-be...

Photo: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/102219