Photo: Lasitha Leelasena
Photo: Lasitha Leelaseena
Residents of Barn Hill were shocked to find that what they saw as a beautiful health oak tree on an open space, between Brampton Grove and Basing Hill, had been felled by Brent Council.
Apart from the main Barn Hill open space there are remnants of Humphry Repton's landscaping present amongst the 1930s housing on the hill. Its oak trees create a unique green environment, apparent from many vantage points, and contribute to the area's clean air.
Survivors amongst the housing
Some residents were aghast and asked Brent Council why the tree had been felled - was it disease or something else?
Kelly Eaton, Head of Parks and Green Infrastructure responded to residents:
I am afraid that we had to remove the tree because of an insurance claim related to property subsidence. In these instances we undertake a rigorous process of assessment of damage caused and liaise closely with our insurance team and loss adjusters. We considered every possible option to save the tree before having to make the difficult decision for its removal. I offer my assurance that the Parks Service did not take this decision lightly, especially when a healthy tree needs to be removed. It leaves us all with a great sadness when this has to take place. I am sorry that we did not inform neighbours before this work was undertaken. We cannot replant in the same location but will work with colleagues to identify alternative locations for any tree replanting.
Local historian Philip Grant adds:
This is a very sad loss, as this was a tree planted as part of Humphry
Repton's landscaping of Richard Page's Wembley Park estate lands in 1793. You
can read about this at the end of Part 1 of my 2020 local history series about
Wembley Park:
https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-wembley-park-story-part-1.html
Although they are now more than 230 years old, you can still follow the lines
of oak trees that Repton had planted around the boundary of Richard Page's
estate, and as a landscape feature framing the summit of Barn Hill when viewed
from the Wembley Park mansion on the northern slope of Wembley Hill.
I have sent Martin a copy of a map from 1920, a few years before developers
started to build the Barn Hill estate. This (above) clearly
shows many of Repton's lines of trees, with an arrow added to point out the row
of trees retained when Basing Hill and Branpton Grove were developed by
Wimpey's in the 1930s.
One of those oaks is the casualty of Brent Council's response to an insurance
claim. It was not the tree's fault, because it had its roots in that ground
more than a century before the houses were built
