My thanks to Jenny Noad for these pictures – taken in The Circus yesterday.
Jenny writes: “Interesting to see that beautiful, infamous Plane trees in the Circus are having their health check-up. Thankfully, they are thriving and well!
They are the biggest trees in Bath, are great for absorbing pollution from the City. The tree surgeon told me he thinks they are about 200 years old!”
The trees are indeed about 200 years old – they were planted at the beginning of the 19th century. The reason theyâve grown so tall is that John Wood designed the Kingâs Circus around a central pond that gave a feather of water to each house. Building was held up at one point when Bath Corporation in its wisdom purloined the water for Milsom Street. That was resolved, but the open pond proved too easy to adulterate (no seagulls then, but you can imagine what other droppings, human or otherwise, would fall into it), so it was covered with a plinth. My theory is that the plane trees have grown so tall because of this water source beneath their roots.
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