Betty’s Wood

Betty Whitton and Sally Ann Jackson led over 50 ‘workers’ in planting over 750 trees to create ‘Korea Wood’ over the Christmas holiday

Sally Jackson of the footpath Forum wrote in Issue 53 of the Tribune of the new permissive footpath to be created thanks to the generosity of Mrs Betty Whitton and her family.
Following that generous gesture, Mrs Whitton invited the people of the Benefice to spend the 27th of December planting 750 small trees adjacent to the South Drain and the new permissive footpath on her land close to Peakirk. These are native trees that will grow to form a small wood to be enjoyed by future generations living in the parishes of Peakirk, Northborough, and Glinton.
People turned up in their droves on that beautiful frosty morning of 27th December, ranging in age from probably five to 85. Families with children, brave souls wearing shorts, mums seizing the opportunity to catch up on local news with friends from other villages, all directed in their planting efforts by Mrs Whitton and Jeff Noble.
Sally Jackson of the Footpath Forum had produced notices, and we had put the ‘word out’ but no one expected so many good-hearted souls to pitch up on such a bitterly cold day.
Jeff Noble scratched his head in bewilderment and said, “I was only expecting six people.” He had good reason to be pleased, he had spent the previous, equally bitter day, drilling 750 holes for these baby trees, so to have a good crowd turn up must have been gratifying, not only for him, but for Mrs Whitton who has made this new wood possible.
People turned up with flasks of coffee to share, that by magic seemed to be bottomless, and the good ladies of Peakirk had trays of baked goodies that disappeared as quickly as snow in a desert.
Having planted the trees, the next task was to mark out the new permissive footpath. Mrs Whitton dropped bundles of marker posts every 100 metres or so, from her 1954 Landrover – the same Landrover that took her and Stuart around Ireland in 1956 – and the path was quickly roped and marked.
In a time of dreary national despair Betty lifts our spirits by inviting us to plant a new wood, and at the same time gives us all a ‘grand day out’ as Wallace and Grommit would say.
A permissive footpath can be signposted, but is not a right of way, and it can be withdrawn at any time if the landowner feels it is being abused, so we need to be mindful of whose land we are on, and to cherish the new path and wood as much as we do our own gardens. If the trees in Betty’s Wood thrive as well as they have done along the other permissive footpath created some years ago by Stuart and Betty Whitton, we (or the children of the Benefice) are in for an arboreal treat.