June 8 - Day 69 -The great beech filled at least half the sky...Its roots clutched the slope like a giant hand.’ Laurie Lee

I must have driven past this building and tree hundreds of times and never noticed them until I’ve been cycling. Having tried to identify what the building is or was, and failed, I decided I would focus on the impressive beech tree instead. The sun or heat must have got to my head yesterday with my Tom Jones challenge so I decided it was best today to take it steadily this morning and stop for this picture.

The colours of what I am presuming is a copper beech really stand out and again can’t fail to impress in the sunlight. Or, given I haven’t managed any puns for a while, I should say it is mos-tree markable. What I hadn’t realised is that copper beech, sometimes known as purple beech, is a cultivated form of beech. It, therefore, doesn’t occur naturally, but is planted as an ornamental tree. If this is a copper beech, it sort of begs the question as to why here?

What I also didn’t know (just to provide you with even more useless facts) is that the the tallest native tree in the UK is a beech that stands at 45m and is also found in Derbyshire at the bottom of Hagg Wood, near Matlock Bath. It’s hard to imagine 45m. The Highway Code states that if you breakdown, ‘put a warning triangle on the road at least 45 metres (147 feet) behind your broken-down vehicle.’ To give it some context, 45m is equivalent to about half the height of Big Ben or the length of eight transit vans - just in case you breakdown and needed to know!.

Beech is often considered the queen of British trees, with Oak being the king. It’s clearly not just human societies that have pa-tree-archal structures. I’d still like to know what the building is though but that’s for another time. It would be good if it was a water treetment plant!