Black poplar and bandstand, Handsworth Park
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Black poplar and bandstand, Handsworth Park by A J Paxton 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
Black poplar and bandstand, Handsworth Park
Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 22 Apr 2023
The tree is a wild black poplar, Populus nigra subspecies betulifolia, with a trunk (shaggy with ivy) of 5.28m girth at a height of 1.5m, according to the Woodland Trust tree inventory https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree?treeid=48371&from=3523&v=2283184&ml=map&z=16&nwLat=52.51181053354219&nwLng=-1.9397488484965453&seLat=52.50704370581322&seLng=-1.9126478086100707#/. This is the native black poplar of Britain and northwestern Europe, although in this location it is likely to be a planted ornamental tree rather than one that occurs here naturally. The bandstand is a Grade II listed building and was made in Scotland in 1903 by the Lion Foundry Company of Kirkintilloch, according to the listing at Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1211912?section=official-list-entry . It was restored for the reopening of the park in 2006; see Image Inner Birmingham is not well-provided with green spaces, and the park is extremely well-used and appreciated by local people. A baby-welcoming gathering was taking place in the bandstand.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.510299
Longitude
-1.926875