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The HISTORY of REDDITCH New Town

'Billions of daffodils were planted on main roads and other wild flowers were dotted about.
I managed to maintain bog areas with plants for wild life and conservation.’

'We had one nursery at Holt End (Beoley), and one on Ipsley Hill. The conditions in which
we were trying to grow things were not very good, particularly at Ipsley, and there was
a problem forecasting requirements. So we reverted to getting stocks from commercial
suppliers who were more versatile and more flexible. However, we replaced the Ipsley
Hill nursery with an Arboretum framework, which in due time would provide a place for
Redditch people to enjoy. Walter Savage Landor, who lived at Ipsley Court in the 19th
century, described the place as being odious, full of mince pie woods and greasy needle
workers!’

'One thing that we did, which I rather like, was that on the eastern edge of the new town
at Mappleborough Green we planted rows of poplar trees in vast areas of land. These are
now really quite majestic and cathedral-like, and if you are going down the A435 you can
see these magnificent woodlands. We planted them to mark the edge of the town, to
provide a screen and to make Matchborough a nice place in which to live. It's proved to
be a home for Muntjack deer, they like the undergrowth and we have seen them passing
over the road at night.’
‘I did say that I didn't use exotic species,
however in 1973 I had the palm trees
brought from Spain and planted in the
Kingfisher Centre. We felt there was a need
to provide some sort of spectacular feature
in the centre of the town. We wondered if
we should go for a contemporary sculpture
by someone like Elizabeth Frink, but we
wanted something different.’
“l must give credit to Sir Edward Thompson
who was Chairman of the Board of the
Redditch Development Corporation. He
suggested that we might like using date
palms, (Latin name: phoenix dactylifera)
so we consulted an expert from Castle
Howard, James Russell, and came to the
conclusion that a couple of dozen palm
trees would fit the bill. They were ordered
from Spain and were dug up a couple of
nights before they arrived on huge lorries. A bold initiative which led to a new saying
The lorries were parked in Bromfield Road in Redditch - “I’ll meet you under the palm
then, overnight, they were driven into the
trees.”
town centre, lifted by crane and placed in
prepared planting pits. Thereafter they needed a very strict regime of watering with warm
water and spraying of the foliage to establish them. They did give us concern a couple
of years after they were planted when they started to show signs of yellowing of the
foliage so we had a lot of the roof panels taken out to let more light in. That was thirty
years ago and we have still got them. They don't bear fruit, it's not warm enough, if you
look carefully you can see their flowers but they never bear dates. I think they have been
very successful as a focal point, people say, I'll meet you under the palm trees'.

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