Tregoniggie Woods, Falmouth Gylly Girls WI plant trees

On Saturday, November 25, as part of National Tree Week, the Gylly Girls Women’s Institute were in Tregoniggie Woodland to plant five new trees.

The planting was part of the Forest for Cornwall initiative where Women’s Institutes across the county were invited to plant some trees and help increase the tree cover across the county.

Six months earlier, Cormac had needed to cut down a number of dead or dying cedar trees in the Nursery area of Tregoniggie Woodland which represented a hazard to the general public.

This provided the opportunity to replace them with native deciduous trees which will be better for wildlife. The trees were produced in Cornwall by tree nurseries on behalf of Forest for Cornwall.

Steady as we go! Gylly girl helps plant an oak tree (Image: Liamh Cullimore)

So it was on a cool but dry Saturday morning, a group of Gylly Girls, helped by the Friends of Tregoniggie Woodland, was able to plant oak, whitebeam, rowan, downy birch and crabapple trees.

During the planting ceremony, some of the Gylly Girls revealed the fact that, fifty years earlier in 1973, they had been involved in planting some of the original trees in Tregoniggie Greenbelt (as it was called then) under the direction of Don Hoyle, head gardener for Falmouth Borough Council, and visionary who laid out the original woodland planting and landscaping.

“It was absolutely amazing to have people who, as schoolchildren, had participated in ‘Plant a Tree in 73’ and help create the wonderful woodland space we have today” commented Euan McPhee, chair of the Friends of Tregoniggie Woodland.

“I am sure Don Hoyle would have been delighted if he were here today. It is his legacy that brings us all together to continue the work that he started fifty years ago.”