No.98 – New Walk in Christ Church Meadow

Finally our man walked down to the river – the Thames – and up through what is known as the New Walk in Christ Church Meadow. We were puzzled at first because the trees didn’t look quite right but amazingly we met a very eccentric old lady who was sitting by the side of the walk drawing trees on huge sheets of paper. She looked at the photo and immediately said “Those are the old elms”. We had stumbled on the ultimate Oxford tree expert!  When all the elm trees in Britain died in the 1960s from Dutch Elm disease, these were removed and the present avenue of poplars and linden were planted instead. If you look very carefully at the old photo you can just see the tower of Christ Church college at the end above the trees.