Last updated on 20 September 2019
Taken from the Tollerton Village Newsletter of November 2002
On October 4th, I was driving with Norma Lewis, the retired Director of Nottinghamshire Wild Life Trust. We were on Tollerton Lane, approaching the airport from the village end when he suddenly gave an exclamation of surprise! He had seen one of the rarest trees in Nottinghamshire, growing in the angle between the road and the avenue of poplars, just next to the pillbox.
Norman is an expert on the wild life of Nottingamshire and has been compiling a list of the mature specimens of this special tree. This was the 26th black popar in Nottinghamshire.
The black poplar is a native of Britain and used to be a common tree in the County. It is renowned for providing floor-boards in industrial buildings, such as oast-houses, because of its non-flammability, and for making the floors of carts and their brake block, because of its resistance to wear and splintering. Because it is a hedgerow rather than a woodland tree, its numbers have declined with the universal destruction of hedges. More are now being planted and it is favoured as a windbreak. The tree throws up several trunks which are characterised by their very rough, gnarled and mossy bark. The most typical growth form is in the side brances that weep down and then curl up at the ends, forming an S shape.
This tree stands on private ground bu can best be viewed from the airport road.