27th August 2026
ATF Local Groups – Visit to Blenheim Palace
by James Chambers
A small group of ATF volunteers had a truly wonderful experience visiting the ancient trees of Blenheim Palace in July.
We had a morning of excellent presentations about AoVTs including tree architecture and morphophysiology, some extraordinary hidden ancient apple trees and the lessons we might learn from the misbehaving willow trees that simply refuse to play by the rules!
It was a really interesting morning with lots of discussion following each of the presentations. We enjoyed tea, coffee (and delicious biscuits!) thanks to our wonderful hosts, before the second set of presentations.
Richard Powell, the Chair of the ATF, expressed his genuine gratitude to all the ATF staff and also the volunteers who make these walks happen, and share the wonder of AoVTs with anyone who is interested, regardless of their level of knowledge.
Trees are for everyone, and you don’t really need training to enjoy them!
After lunch we had the exciting opportunity of a guided walk among the ancient trees, with our generous hosts Francis Gillio and Filipe Salbany from the foresters team. Their knowledge of the site, leading us from one incredible tree to another, was invaluable!
We visited the Kings oak, and later the Queens oak – both in excess of 9m girth! Later we found two of the four trees known to have been colonised by the exceptionally rare Buglossoporus quercinus – oak polypore, (or Fomitopsis pulvina, as it has recently been renamed!) and were lucky enough to find fruiting bodies on two of the trees!
Francis and Filipe were able to tell us about the history of some of the areas, find the biggest trees (5 over 9m girth!)) and even set us up for big surprise reveals by distracting us before trees were visible.
This is a very brief review of an incredibly special day.
Huge thanks to Francis and Filipe for all their kind efforts to make us so welcome and deliver such a memorable and wonderful day.
Image Credits: James Chambers
