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Re: TT: Significance of individual trees
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And here's a press release from the UK Government:
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DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
DCMS170/97 ISSUED 19 DECEMBER 1997
THE ELFIN OAK - 'HOME OF FAIRIES, GNOMES,
ELVES, IMPS AND PIXIES' - IS LISTED
The Little People will have particular cause for revelry and
frolicking in Kensington Gardens tonight. Wookey the witch,
Huckleberry the gnome and Grumples and Groodle the elves have today
become the proud inhabitants of one of England's most unusual listed
buildings.
The Elfin Oak of Kensington Gardens has been added to the list
of buildings of special architectural or historic interest following
a recommendation from English Heritage. It has been listed in Grade
II.
Announcing the listing of the Oak, Heritage Minister Tony Banks said:
"The Elfin Oak is a wonderful curiosity, loved by Londoners and
visitors alike. It also has considerable historic interest. Sculpted
by children's book illustrator Ivor Innes between 1928 and 1930, the
Oak belongs firmly to the late Victorian interest in Little People
which culminated in J M Barrie's Peter Pan. The Oak complements the
statue of Peter Pan by Sir George Frampton which Barrie erected in
1912. Together, the two sculptures make Kensington Gardens very much
the world capital of fairies, gnomes and elves."
The gnarled oak stump came originally from Richmond Park and was
thought to be some 800 years old when it was moved to Kensington
Gardens in 1928. Over the next two years it was worked on by
artist-illustrator Ivor Innes, who covered it with brightly-painted
animals, elves and fairies, mostly carved from the oak, others
probably fashioned from plaster.
The tree depicts the world of the Little People, of Wookey the
witch, with her three jars of health, wealth and happiness; of
Huckleberry the gnome, carrying a bag of berries up the Gnomes'
Stairway to the banquet within Bark Hall, of Grumples and Groodles
the Elves being woken up by Brownie, Dinkie, Rumplelocks and
Hereandthere stealing eggs from the crows' nest.
Situated next to the children's playground by Black Lion Gate,
the Elfin Oak was installed as part of George Lansbury's inter-war
scheme of improvements to public amenities in London. He was
responsible for the foundation of the Serpentine Lido in 1931, the
equipping of the playground between 1923 and 1932 and the opening of
a sandpit and octagonal shelter, as well as the Oak, in 1930.
Spike Milligan has played a key role in ensuring the Oak's
survival. He funded restoration work in the mid 1960s, and 30 years
later came to its rescue again by launching a fundraising campaign
for a new restoration, which was completed in June 1997.
The Elfin Oak of Kensington Gardens, the children's book which
Ivor Innes published with his wife Elsie in 1930, describes how "for
centuries now it has been the home of fairies, gnomes, elves, imps,
and pixies. In the nooks and crannies they lurk, or peer out of
holes and crevices, their natural windows and doorways. It is their
hiding-place by day, their revelry place by night, and when the great
moon tops the bare branchless tree the Elfin Clans come out to play
and frolic in the moonlight." (Elsie Innes, The Elfin Oak of
Kensington Gardens, Frederick Warne & Co, 1930)
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***************** Geraint Jennings *******************
Artist, Teacher, Green, and general all-round good egg
geraint@itl.net
************* http://user.itl.net/~geraint/ *************
==============================(TreeTown)===============================
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