County Durham birch nominated for Tree of the Year

The Bollihope Burn Birch, a downy birch perched off a cliff edge in Stanhope, Weardale, has made the final ten shortlist for the prestigious national competition from the Woodland Trust.

Public voting opens today (July 23), giving people across the region the chance to back the County Durham entry as it competes for the title.

The annual contest celebrates and raises awareness of rare, ancient or at-risk trees across the country, with this year’s theme, “against all odds”, chosen to spotlight nature’s great survivors.

Of the ten shortlisted trees, a panel of experts selected eight, while the public chose two additional wildcard entries.

The Bollihope Burn Birch tree in Stanhope is one of the UK’s (Image: James Reader/Woodland Trust/PA Wire)

David Oakes, actor, nature podcaster and Woodland Trust ambassador, said the shortlist showcases how differently trees endure hardship compared with creatures that can simply move away.

“Most things survive by fleeing,” he said.

“A tree, rooted for life to a single patch of ground, doesn’t get that option.

“So trees have perfected the opposite: the art of weathering whatever arrives.

“But a few are frankly show-offs.”

He added that all ten nominees, including the County Durham birch, had “defied the odds in extraordinary ways, from clinging to cliffs and church towers, to enduring collisions and cannonballs.”

The Bollihope Burn Birch faces stiff competition from trees with equally dramatic backstories.

They include the “Bomber Oak” in Rutland, struck by a Second World War Lancaster bomber and later nearly lost to a water company’s pipe-laying works.

Also included is the Crowhurst Yew in East Sussex, thought to be up to 4,000 years old, which survived a direct hit from a Civil War cannonball, later dug up by villagers in 1820.

Other rivals for the crown include Northern Ireland’s “Bendy Tree”, a wych elm on Newcastle’s seaside promenade that grows almost horizontally after more than a century of coastal winds, and a 200-year-old yew growing from the top of a church tower in Culmstock, Devon.

The list is completed by the lightning-struck “Earlstoun Lightning Oak” in Dumfries and Galloway, the Wales Coast Path Oak in Ceredigion, and Brighton’s “Preston Twin”, believed to be the world’s oldest English elm.

The two public wildcard picks are the Balloch Castle ash by Loch Lomond, which has weathered lightning strikes, storms, disease and even an Oasis concert, and the Donnington Oak in West Berkshire, which stood unscathed through the siege of Donnington Castle in the Civil War.

People can vote for the Bollihope Burn Birch, or any of its rivals, via the Woodland Trust website until late September, with the winner announced in early October before going on to represent the UK in the European Tree of the Year finals.

May Chemais, who runs the Ancient Tree Inventory at the Woodland Trust, said: “Trees can be both tough and flexible, as the shortlist proves.

“We hope people will enjoy discovering all the incredible stories of resilience behind our nominees this year.”