Today, a very special guest, Billy Swainson, who is the dad of our Site Manager Glen Swainson planted the 300th tree in our Celebration Wood.
Celebration Wood, is one of our projects at Wild Haweswater that beautifully combines landscape restoration with connecting people to nature and is a unique place to plant a tree – to mark a special occasion such as an anniversary, or in memory of the life of a loved one. Every tree in Celebration Wood has a story.
Here’s Billy’s story:
“I chose an oak, because ‘mighty oaks, from little acorns grow’. They’re as British as a tree can be, they’ve always been around. Although it’s slower growing, it will be here for longer.
“I originally planted my first Celebration Wood tree last year, an Aspen, for my late wife Paddie, in her memory. And then I wanted my oak to be planted next to her as I didn’t wanted to be parted from her. She’s been beside me since I was 18. We were married 55 years.“
Billy is a dairy farmer, on his farm near Carlisle, where he’s done a lot to help nature.
“I love planting trees, we’ve planted a lot on our farm. It’s always a good idea. My eldest son Paul’s created an arboretum with over 150 species. Some small like Crab Apple and Guelder Rose, others big like oaks.
“Celebration Wood is a great place to plant trees. It was my son Glen’s idea to celebrate my wife Paddie with something living. She was really into gardening – she knew her plants and trees inside out.“
Celebration Wood was set up on 1 February 2022 and since then, it has grown in popularity as a way for both local people and those from further afield with a love of the Lake District, to leave a lasting legacy, benefiting wildlife, as well as helping to restore the native trees that have been lost from the landscape. The Lake District fells should be home to a whole host of native trees such as Downy Willow, Creeping Willow and Aspen, but they have mostly been lost in the English uplands or pushed to the very edges of the craggiest cliffs, by high numbers of munching sheep and deer. Celebration Wood is located on the edge of Naddle Forest, one of the largest and last fragments of temperate rainforest in the Lake District, so is expanding the forest to create future homes for Red Squirrels, Pied Flycatchers, Tree Lungwort Lichens and more.
Some of our team manage the largest native tree and plant nursery in the Lake District here at Wild Haweswater, where many of these species are grown. Our staff and volunteers gather the seeds in autumn, grow them on in the nursery and then plant them back out into the landscape as part of our restoration work.
All the trees for Celebration Wood are also grown in this nursery and there is a choice of saplings for you to choose from including Sessile Oak, Alder, Willow, Rowan, Downy Birch, Aspen, Hawthorn, Crab Apple and Bird Cherry. Celebration Wood supporters also select a pair of personalised ceramic tree markers, beautifully hand-crafted in the Lake District by local ceramist Coco Ceramics; one to keep and one to hang on their tree.
Donations for a tree planting cover the cost of purchasing and caring for the tree as well as the creation and maintenance of Celebration Wood. To discover more about planting a tree, visit our website here.
Image credits
1) Billy Swainson and his Sessile Oak – the 300th tree to be planted in Celebration Wood. Image by Annabel Rushton
2) The Aspen tree that Billy planted in memory of his late wife Paddie. Image by Annabel Rushton
3) Billy and his son Glen – our Site Manager for Wild Haweswater, alongside the tree cage for Billy’s oak. Image by Annabel Rushton
4) The lovely ceramic marker for Paddie’s Aspen, in the shape of an oak leaf. One of the unique markers made by Coco Ceramics for Celebration Wood. Image by Annabel Rushton
– Blog by Annabel Rushton, RSPB People and Partnerships Manager at Wild Haweswater. Posted 13 March 2025.
