Levens Hall, Southern Lakes

      South Lakeland's Levens Hall, home of the world famous Topiary Gardens, has this year a 30 foot specimen, known as the Umbrella Tree, shortlisted by The Woodland Trust, in the running to be crowned "England's Tree of the Year." 

     The tree, planted in the 1690's as part of the original garden layout for a Colonel James Grahme, who came to Levens, after being in service to King James ll with him he brought a young French Gardener; Guillaume Beaumont, a pupil of Notre et Versailles, who planned this fashionable garden.
      Just one of over a hundred individual tree designs, the umbrella tree has been carefully cut and shaped, over the past three hundred years to achieve it's iconic appearance.

      The Umbrella will compete against nine other trees, selected by the Woodland Trust and the winner will receive a grant of £1000, and go forward to the "European Tree of the Year," event.