Today we have published a new 12 minute film featuring the OneOak planting event, and the unveiling of Simon Clement’s sculpture, at the Blenheim woodland in January 2011.
Our huge thanks to Editor Conrad Weisterantz and Camera Sarah Simblet. And of course all the children who worked so hard to plant the 250 oak trees.
We have published a timelapse film of the tree planting activities undertaken earlier this year in our OneOak project. The pictures were taken over four months in the Blenheim woodland and start with the unveiling of the OneOak sculpture plus the first trees being planted on January 31st. Also captured are the visits by 250 school children during February and March when every child planted an oak tree.
The new forest of 250 OneOak trees are protected by tree shelters and by April were surrounded by a carpet of bluebells.
Musician Sarah Morgan visited Willowcroft Community School, one of our OneOak partner schools, earlier this week to practice and record two tree planting songs. The songs will be performed by 250 children from all our five partners schools when every child returns to the OneOak woodland to plant an oak seedling in early February.
The first song is performed rythmically as a call and response:
Tree planting song (Words © Sarah Morgan 2007 / Tune trad.)
Going to take my spade, dig a hole in the ground (x3)
Going to plant a tree before the spring comes roundThat tree will grow so tall and high (x3)
Roots in the earth, leaves in the sky.And the birds will fly from the East and the West (x3)
Going to choose my tree to build their nest.From the acorn to the oak, from the seed to the tree (x3)
We’re planting a forest for you and me.Going to take my spade, dig a hole in the ground (x3)
Going to plant a tree before the spring comes round
The second is adapted from a Kipling verse to suit the timing of our activities:
Oak and Ash and Thorn (adapted from Kipling/Bellamy)
Oak and Ash and Thorn good sirs
All on a January morn
Surely we sing of no little thing
In Oak and Ash and Thorn
You can listen to both songs in the music box on our OneOak homepage
A young sapling raised from a remarkable oak tree⸺once the focus for our national education and arts project⸺has been planted by children in an Oxfordshire school.
Stonesfield Primary School children and their OneOak sapling
In 2010 a 222-year-old oak tree, grown in woodland on the Blenheim Palace Estate, was felled for its timber. It was donated to Sylva Foundation by Blenheim Palace as the focus for our education project OneOak. The OneOak project brought people closer to growing trees for wood by telling the full life story of the oak tree. The tree’s felling was watched by 250 local school children who then returned to the woodland, planting seedlings grown from the acorns of the OneOak tree, to create a new oak forest.
Today, children from Stonesfield Primary School⸺one of schools that took part in the OneOak project⸺were excited to be planting a young oak sapling grown from the OneOak woodland in their school grounds. In addition to the young OneOak tree, trees and flowers have been planted to create a new wild area for learning and play.
Generous support for the planting day has been provided by the forestry team from Blenheim Palace who helped the children plant trees, and provided benches and log seats made of timber from the estate’s woodlands. Imogen Radford from local company Wonderwood donated her time and skills to create a willow weave shelter with the children. Local companies Nicholsons and Barlows generously provided trees and building materials.
Paul Orsi, Sylva Foundation Director for Forestry, commented:
“This is a wonderful project to help young people, not only learn about trees and forestry, but to actually become young foresters by planning, planting and managing the new trees themselves! Meeting the Blenheim Palace Forestry team and Wonderwood’s Imogen Radford will really inspire young people to understand the work that happens in our woodlands everyday.”
Jen Hurst, Sylva Foundation Education Manager commented:
“Planting the young OneOak tree is not only completing the OneOak story but also marks the beginning of an exciting new youth-led project for Sylva.”
Fi McGregor, Head Teacher at Stonesfield School commented :
“It was a privilege to be involved with the original OneOak project, our children got to know the OneOak tree; studying it, measuring it and drawing it. We then witnessed the unforgettable felling of the beautiful tree followed by the processing of the timber to make a range of oak products from furniture to fuel pellets.
Returning to the woods to plant the OneOak acorns made us feel part of the life cycle of the OneOak. To be able to plant a OneOak sapling in our own grounds means that the OneOak story continues. Sylva and Blenheim have enabled our children to gain a better understanding of how felling trees contributes to woodland management and to the huge range of products one tree can provide. We are incredibly grateful to the staff of Sylva and Blenheim for giving us this fantastic opportunity and for helping us to plan and create a new wild garden space for play and for learning.”
Simon Clements with the OneOak sculpture. Photo Angus Beaton.
Sculptor Simon Clements has talked about the inspiration behind the OneOak sculpture, unveiled at the Blenheim Estate in January 2010.
“After the OneOak tree was felled in 2010 I wanted to create a memorial, sited where it had grown for 222 years. I took as my inspiration decaying churchyard stones, ancient weathered timbers, and age worn lettering. I decided that the memorial should be enigmatic: I imagine a curious passer by stumbling across a moss covered carving, weathered with age and wondering why it was there. In the same way that plaques attached to the voyager space probes carried a scientific description of our species and our planet, I wanted my carving to describe a little about the tree and how we have made use of it.
A bough from the tree was split and opened rather like a book. On the right-hand page is carved the description of the tree, on the left-side page a description of our interaction with it. After the OneOak exhibitions are over the sculpture will return to the woodland to stand like a sentinel amidst a grove of oak saplings. As they grow, I hope the memorial will age with grace and become (for those lucky enough to discover it) a meditation of our cultural debt to trees, and allow quiet contemplation upon the aesthetics of decay.“
Simon Clements, Sculptor 2011.
Simon’s sculpture is currently sited on the base of the OneOak tree in the woodland at Blenheim. It will be removed temporarily so that it can be displayed at the various OneOak exhibitions that are planned for 2011 and 2012. The first of these will be at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden from April.
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