The Dumbleton Pear

About a month ago I went to the ancient village of Dumbleton in Gloucestershire. We were out there to study the geology and search for a little known fossil locality. Our route north of the village passed through the old manor estate which contains some fine old specimen trees including Cedrus libani and Fagus sylvatica Purpurea. On initially passing this tree I paid it little attention, thinking it an old stags headed Quercus robur however it's nothing of the sort, it's actually a huge European cultivated pear tree, Pyrus communis.



This tree has a trunk just over three metre in diameter and must surely be several hundred years old!



You can find it here: