Morayshire school children join the Woodland Trust and The Crown Estate to plant a new native wood to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar
Members of the local community and children from local schools in Morayshire will join representatives from the Woodland Trust Scotland (1), part of the UK's leading conservation charity, and The Crown Estate (2) near Tomintoul on the Glenlivet Estate (3) in Morayshire to plant around 4,000 native trees, creating the 4-hectare ‘Defence Wood’, one of 33 ‘Trafalgar Woods’ throughout the UK. The wood will be named after the HMS Defence (4), one of the ships of the Trafalgar fleet, which was captained by a Scot, George Hope (5).
Event: Community and schoolchildren planting new ‘Trafalgar wood’
Venue: On the Glenlivet Estate, near Tomintoul, Morayshire
When: Between 10.30am and 2.30pm on Friday 28 October 2005
Contact: Andrew Wells, Countryside and Forestry Services Manager for The Crown Estate, on: 01807 580283
Images: A photographer will attend and images will be available for the media
Scotland has a strong maritime past and contributed significantly to the Battle of Trafalgar. Five of the 27 Captains of the fleet’s warships were Scottish. In addition, Scotland’s industry contributed through timber products, sails from Baxter’s of Dundee, iron cannons from Falkirk and, most importantly, crewmembers, with almost 30% of the 18,000-strong crew hailing from Scottish towns and fishing villages. Nelson’s Doctor and the woman who embalmed his body when he died were Scottish. In addition, children as young as 10 years old served as crew during the Battle – the youngest being a cabin boy from Leith, Edinburgh.
Trees played a vital role in the Battle of Trafalgar. The fleet of 27 war ships contained timber from around 50,000 oaks, representing roughly two million years of oak tree growth. Nelson himself acknowledged the importance of trees to the success of the British navy and, in 1803, wrote to Parliament calling for more trees to be planted to safeguard ship building timber supplies.
Andrew Fairbairn, Development Manager for the Woodland Trust Scotland, said: “Our aim is to highlight the important role timber played in British Naval history. We want to get people thinking about just how pivotal timber was then, and remains today – not only to the navy but also in everyday life. Scotland’s trees are as important now as they were 200 years ago, and we can all do our bit to protect them, and to plant new ones.”
28 Trafalgar crewmembers are known to have hailed from Morayshire and Banffshire, with a much larger number from the north east of Scotland. One such known crewmember was James Simpson, a Yeoman of Powder Room, who was responsible for storing and dispersal of the powder for the guns on HMS Defence and was 48 years old at the time of Trafalgar. A searchable crew database can be found at: www.treeforall.org.uk/trafalgar/crewlist
Andrew Wells, Countryside and Forestry Services Manager for The Crown Estate, said,
“The Banffshire area has a long maritime history, with active ports to the north along the Moray coast. Many of the Scottish crewmembers who took part in the Battle were from Morayshire, Banffshire and the wider north east of Scotland. This wood will be a fitting memorial to the north east’s maritime past, and it will be a lasting reminder of The Crown Estate’s commitment to the management and enhancement of native woodlands on the Glenlivet Estate.”
Woodlands of birch, rowan, gean, alder and Scots pine once covered much larger areas of upland Moray. Many have disappeared over the centuries as a consequence of human activity. The Defence wood project, which is supported by the Forestry Commission through the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme, will help to extend the area of native woodland on the estate, adding to the landscape and amenity of this beautiful part of Scotland, which is part of the Cairngorms National Park.
The Trafalgar Woods Project is part of the Tree for All campaign, the largest children’s tree planting initiative Scotland has ever seen, which provides a range of online educational resources to support schools planting a hedge or copse in their school grounds. Community groups can also organise their own events and register them with the Woodland Trust Scotland. The campaign’s vision is that every child should have the chance to plant trees. Two million trees will be planted across Scotland over the next five years as part of the campaign – two for every child under the age of 16. More information can be found at: www.treeforall.org.uk/trafalgar
Media contacts:
Andrew Fairbairn, Development Manager, Woodland Trust Scotland:
Tel: 01764 662554, Mob: 07770 482939, E-mail: andrewfairbairn@woodland-trust.org.uk
Andrew Wells, Countryside and Forestry Services Manager, The Crown Estate:
Tel: 01807 580283, E-mail: andrew.wells@thecrownestate.co.uk
Stan Blackley, Portable PR
Tel: 08700 742449, Mob: 07770 742449, E-mail: stan@portablepr.com
Notes to Editors:
1. The Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters. Established in 1972, the organisation now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). In 1984, the Trust acquired its first wood in Scotland. Today the Trust owns 80 sites across Scotland covering 8,100 hectares. Further news can be accessed at: www.woodland-trust.org.uk
2. The Crown Estate
The Crown Estate is an estate valued at more than £5 billion, including substantial blocks of urban property, over 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of agricultural land, and around half the foreshore, together with the seabed out to the 12-mile territorial limit. The Crown Estate is part of the hereditary possessions of the Sovereign “in right of the Crown”, managed under the provisions of the Crown Estate Act 1961 by The Crown Estate, which has a duty to maintain and enhance the capital value of the Estate and the income obtained from it. All the net revenue generated annually by The Crown Estate is paid to the Government for the benefit of the taxpayer. Last year, this amounted to more than £184 million. For more information, see: www.thecrownestate.co.uk
3. Glenlivet Estate
Lying between 'the Ladder' and the Cromdale Hills at the edge of the Cairngorms, the two broad straths of the rivers Avon and Livet form The Crown Estate’s 23,000 hectare Glenlivet Estate. The Estate was acquired by The Crown Estate in 1937 and is a highly integrated, multi-award winning holding, providing opportunities for sustained employment in agriculture, forestry, sporting and tourism with high priority given to the long-term development of its community. Glenlivet Estate offers a range of visitor opportunities, and further details can be found on the Glenlivet website: http://www.glenlivetestate.co.uk/
4. HMS Defence
HMS Defence was built at Plymouth and launched in 1763 and was over forty years old by the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. Although one of the smaller ships she had a highly distinguished record and a long list of battle honours to her credit. She had a crew of 550, of whom 7 were killed and 27 injured at the Battle of Trafalgar. Her signal officer, Midshipman Huskisson, thought that ‘Defence was the finest sailor in the fleet’ and shared the cockpit with ‘messmates (who) were most of them from Scotland and good humoured, pleasant young men’. Defence was wrecked on the coast off Jutland in 1811 with only five survivors.
5. Captain George Hope
Son of Hon. Charles Hope-Vere by his third wife, Helen, daughter of George Dunbar, and was grandson of Charles, 1st Earl of Hopetoun. He was born in 1767, and entered the service in 1782. He commanded the Defence in the Battle of Trafalgar and was much distinguished – received the gold medal, the thanks of Parliament and a sword of honour from the Patriotic Fund. He was for some time MP for East Grinstead in Sussex, and was appointed a Major-General in the Royal Marines in 1818. Captain Hope went on to command other ships including HMS Victory, and was promoted to Rear Admiral. He died at the Admiralty in 1818, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
