Fifteen Essex rail stations have become part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
Young trees have been planted at station entrances or in station gardens by Greater Anglia’s volunteer station adopters in conjunction with the Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership.
Stations receiving a Jubilee tree are Battlesbridge, Braintree Freeport, Bures, Burnham on Crouch, Chappel and Wakes Colne, Hockley, Hythe, Ingatestone, Mistley, North Fambridge, Rayleigh, Southminster, Thorpe-le-Soken, Weeley and Wrabness stations.
The Queen’s Green Canopy invites people from across the United Kingdom to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee” between October 2022 and March 2023 to create a sustainable legacy and honour the Queen’s 70-year reign.
The planted trees are all native British trees such as Crab Apple, English Yew, Bird Cherry, Rowan and Beech.
Catherine Gaywood of the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership, said, “We identified 15 stations in Essex that have the capacity to support a new tree, which will create an attractive welcome to the station, give a great impression to visitors to the area arriving by train and provide a refuge for wildlife to help support biodiversity locally.”
Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, Alan Neville, said, “I would like to thank everyone involved in this lovely project, which will enhance the stations as well as contribute to the huge tree planting initiative across the country which will serve as a lasting, sustainable legacy in honour of The Queen. Tree planting will benefit future generations and it’s wonderful that these stations are playing a small part in that because of this work.”