The amazing Tortworth chestnut tree

I had a quick meeting in Bank Gardens  at 10am with the head of the town council's Green Spaces team to finalise the details of our new wooden walkway at the adjacent Lansdown Hall.  The rain had just ceased as I arrived and the sky was brightening by the time I left.

I was heading about fifteen miles south of Stroud to Tortworth in South Gloucestershire to meet Mark, aka fellow blipper Incredibish.  We hadn't met before but as well as living fairly close to each other we are also volunteers as councillors in our respective parishes.  

I suggested a rendezvous point at Tortworth because I wanted to revisit the famous old chestnut tree which grows beside the church, which it probably predates. I first came here when I read about the longevity and size of this chestnut in one of my favourite books, 'The History of the Countryside', written by Oliver Rackham.  I was planning to attend a course by Professor Rackham in May this year, but very sadly he died a short while before. 

The tree's stool has spread very widely and produced many off shoots, and I have added some info about it from a wiki below, which provides a few more details.  

Mark and I both have the same camera and we spent a short while trying 
to find the best position for pictures, but it was quite hard given the overcast light and the difficulty getting a clear wide view.  We were also chatting a lot and walked through a gate into the field behind the tree and the churchyard to look for another view back towards the tree, but couldn't find one. Instead I managed to persuade a slightly reluctant Mark to let me take a picture of him which I have added as an 'Extra photo' below. I hope he doesn't mind.

Then we headed off to a delightful small hostelry in Mark's village a couple of miles away where we mostly talked about Neighbourhood Plans, which is another point of common interest. I had a really good time and was pleased to be able to use the borrowed wide angle lens again before I returned it to its owner in Nailsworth on my way home. I'm sure we will meet again, hopefully soon, and maybe on my patch. Perhaps our partners will also come as they are both blippers too.

From Wiki:
Tortworth is noted for a huge and ancient chestnut tree, believed to be over 800 years old. The tree, in St. Leonard's churchyard, looks like a small wood because many branches of the main trunk have taken root and legend says that it was planted in 800 AD. It sprang from a nut planted during the reign of King Egbert in 800 AD. Written records go back to the 12th century.
Boundary records compiled in the reign of John of England (1166-1216) already showed the "Great Chestnut of Tortworth" in South Gloucestershire, as a landmark; and it was also known by the same name in the days of Stephen (1096–1154). This tree measured over 50 feet in circumference at 5 feet from the ground in 1720. The tree was measured in 1988 by the Tree Register of the British Isles when it had a girth of 11m at a height of 1.00 m.
The tree is one of fifty Great British Trees, selected in 2002 by The Tree Council to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.