‘Intense’ five-year project sees Belton Estate’s mile-long East Avenue restored to a full compliment of trees for the first time in more than a century

An estate’s eyecatching East Avenue has been restored to a full compliment of trees for the first time in more than 100 years.

After five years of hard work the project to plant almost 200 trees on the National Trust’s Belton Estate has been completed.

Even First World War maps were consulted to ensure the avenue was recreated to its original look.

With the first and last trees planted by lead ranger Chris Shaw, he finally realised his 20-year ambition to restore the East Avenue.

The mile-long avenue has been well preserved and maintained over the years, but many of the veteran trees were in need of restoration work due to age and disease, with many areas needing to be replanted.

As part of the Reconnecting Grantham project, in partnership with The Woodland Trust and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, resources were allocated in 2019 to restore and replant the avenue.

Before planting could commence, a survey was undertaken of the existing trees and sensitive pruning was carried out by specialist tree surgeons to preserve them.

With the help of volunteers, Belton’s area ranger Nick Brown established a tree nursery at Belton to grow seed harvested on the estate and nurture young trees ready for planting.

“The last 12 months have been intense, involving a lot of physical work,” he said.

“Two-hundred tree guards have been cut out from rolls of weldmesh with an angle grinder and then installed on the Avenue.

“Each guard needed three posts to protect the trees from deer, sheep and inquisitive Lincolnshire Red cows who have been supervising our work on the hill and love to scratch themselves on them.”

Nick added: “For the first time in over 100 years, visitors to the Parkland and Bellmount Tower can now walk through a complete avenue of trees, although it will be a few years before those trees are fully grown.

“For everyone involved, we have the immense satisfaction of knowing we have delivered something that will be there for another 300 years as part of Belton’s long history and heritage.’

The ride behind Bellmount Tower was also cleared to recreate the avenue of limes.

Research was carried out to understand how the avenue would have looked in its prime, with Army maps from the First World War showing that even then there were many gaps in planting on the hill which needed to be marked out.

Throughout the project, tree selection was of upmost importance, ensuring that the original planting was respected.

Horse chestnuts were planted in the main sightline of the house, on the left going up to Five Gates Road, while limes, which are traditional in Lincolnshire, were planted on the right and on the hill itself.

The work has all been in line with one of the primary aims of the National Trust’s new strategy, to restore nature by working with others and on the land in its care to create 250,000 hectares of thriving, nature-rich land, and to influence a more climate-positive future.