Memorial Liquidamber Tree in Full Colour

Liquidamber tree on the Recreation Ground, Horndean Road

Many of you may have noticed the beautiful deep red and yellow autumn leaves on the liquidamber growing on the Emsworth Recreation Ground, next to the path by Horndean Road.

This Liquidambar styraciflua Worplesdon was planted by the EHS in memory of one of our long serving committee members Shirley Wenman (formerly Baxter). Shirley was warm, kind and friendly, and her most significant talent was persuading people to volunteer for the committee, show and hut – and keep them there. She did this for nearly 40 years before her sudden death in 2008.

Sadly there’s no plaque by the tree to tell you this. Havant Borough Council wouldn’t allow it.

We have another commemorative tree on the recreation ground, by the path to the tennis courts. There is a plaque there, to Jim Booth who ran the hut as far as I know from the 1920s until the late 1970s. If I remember rightly it was a ginkgo – why not go and have a look?

by
Lyn Davies