PLANS are being made to mark Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee in Bushy Park with the planting of a 'mature native oak tree' and surround it with SEVEN hawthorns to represent the seven decades of her reign, Nub News can exclusively reveal today.

The Trustees of The Friends of Bushy and Home Parks have set aside a budget of £10,000 to commemorate the momentous occasion in each of the parks. In Bushy Park, it is 'probable' that a little- known site will be chosen near an existing Victorian Oak, which was planted to celebrate Queen Victoria's reign.

Discussions continue between the Historic Royal Palaces and The Friends about proposals for Home Park. The trees will be mature rather saplings and will be planted in the autumn which is regarded as the 'suitable season period' for tree planting.

Local historian David Ivison, and a Trustee of the Friends, who kindly provided the images and fascinating historical docments, showing the likely siting of the Victorian Oak believes the tree near the Hampton Court Gate was planted for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee by the Ministry of Works back in 1897.

He told Teddington Nub News: "Having been a professional arboriculturalist in my working life I was intrigued to know if it was still there. We went to visit the site and there is an oak tree in that position which is of good form, and its size fits in with the predicted age of 135 years (the tree would probably have been ten, or more, years old when planted).

"The Royal Parks has always had a policy of not placing plaques to identify individual tree planting, so it is therefore not possible to say with any certainty that the tree is the one mentioned in the correspondence. However, in my opinion, the tree appears to be in the same position as that located on the map and it has all of the right characteristics, and size, of a tree planted at that time."

The Woodland Trust has created a countrywide tree-planting initiative called The Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) to mark the Jubilee, which will include a special Bank Holiday over the first weekend in June.

Everyone across the UK has been invited to "Plant a Tree for the Jubilee" and plant trees from October 2021, when the tree planting season begins, through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022. The Queen's Green Canopy will create a network of individual trees, avenues, copses and whole woodlands in honour of The Queen's service and the legacy she has built.

To see more about the initiative click here.