Mark North, the Museum’s Marketing
Officer explains:
This was a project of mine that came out of the Covid pandemic. When
restrictions eased I decided to go to Bagber, a small hamlet outside of
Sturminster Newton where William Barnes was born and spent his childhood. Along
the route that Barnes walked to Sturminster Newton is a large oak tree, which has
been locally named the 'The Barnes Oak,' as this was the tree he wrote about in
his poem ‘The Girt Woak Tree That’s In the Dell.’
The floor of the path was full of acorns that had fallen from the tree.
I decided to gather as many as I could, take them home and grow trees from them.
The idea of the project was to carry on the legacy of the girt woak tree and to
plant them in other places that are associated with Barnes.
The poetry book, William Barnes, ‘My Orcha’d in Linden Lea’ and other Poems, is also included with this lot. Published
by the William Barnes Society, it features the poem ‘The Girt Woak Tree
That's In the Dell,’ and the Barnes Oak illustrates the front cover.
