On a recent trip to Northumberland to visit family, we stayed at Folly Cottage on the Belsay Estate. What began as a break quickly turned into an impromptu tree survey—tape measure in one hand, smartphone in the other. My destination? The ancient churchyard of St Andrew’s Church, Bolam, with its commanding Saxon tower, centuries-old stonework, and a remarkable pair of veteran sycamores.
St Andrew’s Church: Saxon Stone and Living Monuments
St Andrew’s sits on a gentle rise above the surrounding farmland. The tower is Saxon—plain, square, and in parts unmortared—and inside the church, I think of doing a medieval knight’s brass rubbing. Outside, however, it’s the trees that really caught my eye.
Two veteran sycamores, both now waiting to be verified onto the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory, flank the northern and north-eastern churchyard banks.
🌳 Tree 1: Veteran Sycamore, Ivy-clad and Lichen-rich
What3Words: ///eyeliner.oath.motor
Girth: 3.89m @1.50m
Growing out of the northern bank, this sycamore is typical of old boundary trees—leaning slightly, dressed in ivy, and hosting several species of lichen and moss.
It has retained an impressive crown and likely predates many of the headstones it now overlooks.
🌳 Tree 2: Pollarded Sycamore with Cuckoo Ash
What3Words: ///shaped.hawks.seducing
Girth: 5.16m @0.80m
More fragmented, and closer to the north-eastern wall, this tree presents an interesting identity puzzle. It appears to have a cuckoo ash.
Either way, it is a classic pollard: low branch points, split bole, and signs of ancient working.
It, too, is now awaiting verification on the Woodland Trust ATI.
A Living Churchyard Archive
Like many churchyards in the North, the trees, structures, and churchyards around Bolam form part of a wider cultural woodland.
Some of these trees show stone-banking at the base, just as I found in the shelterbelt at Folly Cottage, Belsay. Stones—whether from field clearance, erosion control, or fencing—become absorbed into the tree’s base, part of the historical record in wood and stone. Exploring the historic shelterbelts of Northumberland.
The Art of Translation: From Tree to Print
Inspired by both the church tower and the veteran trees, I’ve begun a new relief print using chine collé, layering tissue papers into the print to reflect the ancient stone and the textures of bark, ivy and lichen.
In this piece, the square tower rises in front of the trees. It’ll be in the style of recent pieces on the Sycamore Gap Tree and Lewes Castle, East Sussex.
I’ll share the finished piece soon.
🎨 Want to try chine collé? Here’s a beginner’s guide to the technique
📷 View my gallery of tree and churchyard photographs here > https://bit.ly/45niz88
🌿 Final Thoughts
The trees at St Andrew’s, like those at Folly Cottage, are part of a living landscape record—one you can walk through, touch, and (with permission) record. Next time you find yourself by a rural churchyard or walking a field-edge shelterbelt, take a moment to look at the base of a tree and contemplate the history.
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