|N side of: footpath (from Lewes Road (A275))|
|Distance (S) from Greenwich|
|OS map details||OS Explorer: 135|
|OS grid ref||TQ 40266.26346|
|WGS84 lat/long||51.019388, -0.001560|
|Type||Tree | Plaque (tree)|
|Marking date||1984 (replaced 1987)|
When in the spring of 1984, Epping District Council announced it intention to plant western red cedars along the Meridian to mark its ‘centenary’, it also urged other local authorities to do likewise. Of the seven who said they would, Wealden District Council is the only one that appears to have actually done so. They planted specimens of sequoiadendron giganteum – a tree also known as wellingtonia, but more commonly as the giant redwood. In time, they will tower over their neighbours, reaching perhaps a height of 50–85 m. The variety is long lived – the oldest known specimen being about 3,500 years old. Of the four planting sites identified, three are spaced at roughly 0.5 mile intervals in the Ashdown Forest. This one, the fourth, is a couple of miles further south.
The black 1984 Centenary Planting plaque, which was missing in 2009, was for a long while contradicted by a second sign of later date, which stated the tree was planted in 1987. Still present in 2011, that plaque had gone missing by 2017. A later unrelated marking at Heaven Farm is located to the south.