Broadstone's oldest tree

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Broadstone's oldest tree by John Palmer as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Broadstone's oldest tree

Image: © John Palmer Taken: 11 Jul 2010

An unusual grave in Broadstone Cemetery was restored by the A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund in 2000. It features a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall fossil tree trunk from Portland mounted on a block of Purbeck limestone. Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution of species by natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory jointly with Wallace in 1858. The age of the tree is late Jurassic, about 150 million years old. The grave is located 50 metres beyond the main gate, on the right, very obvious.

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