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There are 39 lime trees on the Warwickshire side of the Evesham Road in Astwood Bank. They stretch from the junction of Evesham Road with the Feckenham/Sambourne Road near the White Lion' to beyond 'The Bell'. These fine trees have near their middle the Astwood Bank War Memorial. On the base is listed 40 victims of the First World War. One name, Raymond V. J. Jelfs, is added at the end, out of alphabetical order, and clearly added later by the mason.
Richard Churchley and I speculated that there may be a connection between the number of trees (39) and the number of names. Careful surveying shows that there is one unnatural gap, so possibly one tree had been lost.
I began by asking local people and obtained the same story from three different well-established members of the village. Their belief was that money was raised to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 and that not enough money was collected for 60 trees, hence the number planted.
The next step was to look at the 'Redditch Indicator' for 1897. However, in the many reports of the committees which arranged the Jubilee celebrations and of the actual events of the day, there is no mention of trees being planted.
A suggestion from older residents of Astwood Bank led me again to the 'Redditch Indicator', this time to the coronation of Edward VII. In the report of May 3rd, 1902, a public meeting at the 'Woodman Inn' agreed to consider the planting of trees along the Evesham Road as part of the Coronation festivities. in fact, the Coronation was postponed until August. because of the illness of the King. The Coronation Trees were duly planted in a special ceremony on November 2Oth, 1902 but the 'Redditch Indicator' reported only that the number of trees (red lime) was between 40 and 50: the names of the various donors were given
Perhaps there is no significance in the number of trees and local legend and my speculations have both proved false.
Edit:-- The reports about Astwood Bank which Mr. Adshead found in the local press, though in some cases having nothing to say about the lime trees he was investigating, did, in fact, have other interesting sidelights to throw upon the Astwood Bank community: for instance, they showed that in l897 there was some disunity among the citizens, leading to the formation of more than one committee to celebrate the Jubilee. The importance of local newspapers in illuminating local history has often been stressed in these pages.
© Alcester & District Local History Society 1991