Ashes to ashes

I'm not sure how many ash trees we have in Cranfield but latest national news reports of decay are worrying - including suggestions that oaks are also threatened. Read more here Most trees diseased

Cranfield has never been a chocolate box village give or take a Normanish church and some interesting almshouses. I would say we are more neo-Budgens and Coop Revival architecture with some classical 70s. It's the trees that make the place great IMHO.

That's why the concern when we took down some of our dead and dying trees, specially in the Rec was understandable. But it had  to be done and it was evidence-based and planned. Many thanks to Pcllr Alan Morris and former parish councillor Maurice Rust for their input. Nothing lives for ever and we have to plan for the future.

So the future bit is being delivered tomorrow by Potash Nurseries who are putting in the new rowans and flowering cherries in the Rec. They will also put in our Jubilee oak in the cemetery and two flowering cherries which will link the old and news sections. The cemetery has been open for 20 years and the original full interment section (as opposed to ashes) is almost full. In the next year the extension will come into a use and the cherries will link the old and the new. The oak will go bang in the middle. Life (and the end of life) goes on.