Derby's Heritage Part 25 - The Arboretum (Sections D &
E)
w/e 29 January 2012
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
We remain in Derby Arboretum for this part which
will focus mainly on the final two sections before making our
way towards the Arboretum Street exit.
 Our route
resumes at the Florentine Boar which stands at a T-junction of
paths that separate Sections C (behind the statue), B and D.
The adjacent information plaque (right) reads: "In  1806
Joseph Strutt commissioned sculptor W J Coffee to make a ceramic
copy of the Renaissance boar sculpture in Marketo Nuovo, Florence.
Originally located in the gardens at his house in central Derby,
the boar was transferred to this site when the Arboretum opened
in 1840. It survived here for a little over a century until being
severely damaged by a World War II bombing raid in 1941, and
was then removed. As part of the Arboretum refurbishments, the
original boar was replaced by this bronze replica."
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The serpentine path continues around the perimeter of the site
but a long straight path leads directly from the Florentine Boar
to the fountain and separates Section B of the Arboretum on the
left from Section D on the right. The tree catalogue lists only
seven trees in Section D including a couple of limes, an oak,
a beech and an ash.
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The fountain stands at the intersection of the four straight
paths that split the Arboretum into four of the five sections
and the view above looking between Sections A and E is towards
Grove Lodge where we started our walk around the Arboretum in
Part 23. The information plaque here reads: "This fountain
was designed by Andrew Handyside in 1845. The lower basin is
the original but the stem above is a replica. Many of the original
urns in the Arboretum were also cast at Handyside's Derby foundry,
but few of these survive today. This crossing of the two main
straight paths was always intended to be a focal point of the
park. Loudon's initial suggestion for this site was stone seating
and a statue."
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Turning at the fountain to look along the path to Loudon's roofless
"shelter" (this an original) that was constructed purely
as a focal point to keep the eye within the Arboretum's boundary,
we can also see the three trees in Section D that feature in
the Tree Trail. Pointing towards Arboretum Lodge where we will
eventually take our leave and standing in a line on the mound
are a Narrow Leaved Ash, a Silver Pendant Lime and a Holm Oak.
The tree catalogue also identifies the small tree on the right
as an Indian Bean Tree and the larger tree behind along the path
back to the boar as an Oriental Beech but neither of these features
on the Tree Trail.
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Before making our exit though from the Arboretum, there is still
one more section to view. This is Section E which contains nearly
half of all the trees listed on the Tree Trail. As well as the
dozen on the Tree Trail, the catalogue also identifies another
fifty two trees in this section that originate all across the
northern hemisphere. There are firs and pines from North America,
mulberry trees, hazels and cherries from China, Japan and other
parts of Asia plus a whole host of varieties from Europe.
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It would be easy to spend a substantial amount of time in this
section just picking out the the interesting trees and reading
about them such as the one on the left of this image. This is
a Tree of Heaven that comes from Northern China and which produces
suckers from its roots as a way of propagating itself. It is
too cold in Britain to grow from seed but it produces red seeds
that are prominent in September. Since 2003 the Arboretum has
enjoyed a new lease of life for, with the aid of a Lottery Grant,
a significant amount of work has restored both Grove Lodge (seen
here) and Arboretum Lodge as well initiating the removal of some
trees, the planting of others and the labelling of many specimens.
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From Grove Lodge we double back towards Arboretum Lodge resuming
this time along the serpentine path and passing through a level
area of Section E that unlike the rest of the Arboretum has flower
beds and no mounds. There are actually three or four paths through
this level area but they all converge near the bowling green.
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  And
it is from a mound near the bowling green with the "shelter"
beyond that we conclude our Arboretum walk as we will continue
the Heritage Walk Part 26 in Arboretum Street. It is perhaps
unfortunate that we reached the Arboretum during the winter months
when many of the trees had lost their leaves. These two small
images taken in the autumn of 2011 show how colourful the Arboretum
can be and suggest that more visits in other seasons might well
be worthwhile.
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