legends · 4 min read ·
Preservation Order
A tree preservation order protects an ash that has grown through a bedroom, and speaks in a dead husband's voice.
**Haley Borough Council · Tree Preservation Order TPO/26/0031**
**Tree:** Common ash (*Fraxinus excelsior*), single stem, approx. 22 m · **Location:** rear garden, 6 Quarry Row, Haley
**Reason for order:** Tree is a significant feature of the local landscape and is of exceptional age.
*No work may be carried out to this tree without written consent from the council.*
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**Arborist's inspection report (M. Quaife, 10 Sept)**
Tree is healthy in its crown. Bark shows no fungal growth. Roots appear intact, but the trunk has grown through a gap in the rear wall of the house. The gap is approximately 40 cm in diameter.
Recommendation: the tree should be removed or cut back. The growth is causing structural damage to the bedroom above the kitchen. The bedroom ceiling is cracked in a line that follows the trunk.
Note: the tree is not in the garden. It is in the bedroom. Its roots go under the floor.
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**Homeowner's letter (Joan Berrow, 14 Sept, to council)**
*Dear Planning Team,*
*I'm writing to ask you to remove the order on the ash tree in my garden. It's grown into the house. It came up through the bedroom floor, which I didn't even know had a gap. It's in the middle of the room now, and my bed is pushed against the trunk, and at night I can hear the leaves moving, though there's no wind.*
*The tree is very beautiful and I'd like to keep it. But it has started to talk, and the things it says are in my husband's voice. He died in the spring. The tree says he's been living in the roots since. It says he wants to come up into the room.*
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**Council officer's note (Planning, 16 Sept)**
Site visit made. Tree confirmed in the bedroom. Owner's account accepted as accurate, insofar as the tree is in the bedroom.
The council is not able to remove the order. The tree is listed on the local landscape register, and its age has been established as older than the town. Its origin is recorded as "pre-Haley."
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**Arborist's inspection report (M. Quaife, 22 Sept, second visit)**
The tree has moved. The trunk now fills the bedroom from floor to ceiling and has pushed out through the window on the north wall. Its canopy is in the garden, but the roots run in through the floor, under the carpet, and up the walls. Several of the roots have been cut. Sap is running.
The cut roots show rings. I counted them. There are 340 rings in the section I took, and each ring has a small pale mark in it, like a name carved into bark, and the names are all of people who lived on Quarry Row.
Mine is the last one. It's in the outermost ring, fresh, and it says "Dennis."
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**Homeowner's letter (Joan Berrow, 25 Sept)**
*Please let me know if the council is going to do anything. I've been sleeping in the kitchen. The bedroom is full of roots now. They've wrapped around the wardrobe and the bed and the chest of drawers. They're holding things, like they're keeping them safe.*
*I found my wedding ring in the bark this morning. It had been pushed into one of the branches. The tree had put a leaf over it, as if it were a gift.*
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**Council officer's note (Planning, 30 Sept)**
Owner reports the bedroom ceiling has collapsed under the weight of the trunk. The trunk is now visible through the first floor and into the attic. Several neighbours report hearing a man's voice calling for help from the centre of the tree, asking them to cut him out.
Council will not authorise removal. The order stands.
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**Arborist's inspection report (M. Quaife, 5 Oct, final)**
Tree is in good health. Growth is vigorous. The trunk has reached the attic and the roof has been lifted. The crown is now above the house, visible from the road.
Recommendation: no work. The tree is doing what it was planted to do.
Note: the tree has a second trunk growing alongside the first, thinner, with smaller leaves. The bark of the second trunk has a pattern of tiny raised lines, like scar tissue, running from the base to the first branch. Joan Berrow says it has been growing since the week her husband was buried, and that the tree always seemed to know which of them would be the one to stay.
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**Final council notice (TPO/26/0031, 27 Oct)**
Order confirmed. No work to be carried out. The tree is protected under the Haley Borough Tree Protection Byelaw.
*Officer's note: the house at 6 Quarry Row is unoccupied. The canopy now shades the road from noon. A survey of the cut section found 341 rings. The outermost ring is blank.*