ESTIMATED AGES OF FAMILIAR BRIGG TREES INCLUDE A FEW SURPRISES

Estimated ages of trees lining various streets in the town have been received from Ken Harrison, of Brigg Matters Magazine. He soon responded to a recent Brigg Blog post on this topic. View details here. Ken's suggestions are set out below...

The lime trees along Wrawby and Bigby Roads should be fairly easy to date. They were planted on the initiative of John Hett from circa 1861...so assuming the trees, when planted, were already 10-year saplings, this would age the trees reasonably accurately to be about 165 years old.
During the same period a Joseph Hopkins and H.H. Cave, the agent for the Elwes estate, volunteered to fund tree plant in other parts of the town. HH Cave concentrated upon East Park (area near the public toilets), but the Brigg Board reported several times on vandalism between circa 1875 to 1890 and Cave's trees needed replacing.  Therefore, the trees in the area of East Park appear to from about 165 years to about 145 years old.
Lime trees are fairly long-lived, from 200 to 300 years; so, on average, they have another 80 odd years before they start to curl up the roots.
In contrast, Birch trees are comparatively short-lived - 50 to 70 years. Therefore, assuming that the tree that toppled over in Birch Avenue (during Storm Ciara) was a 10-year sapling when planted, it would have been planted about 1960/70.
Birch trees are one of the unfortunate species of trees that is more likely than other types to succumb to high winds.
Overall, few trees appear to have a natural death....with age, they become prone to being smothered by other species, victims of bacterial/disease and insect infestations.
Methinks the older trees will be found in areas of the town where they have not been disturbed for hundreds of years, i.e. old Elwes land ...previously their parks and gardens...and there are old mature trees on the periphery of the town's secondary school sites.
At the time of the Brigg Bronze Age boats, there is strong evidence that area was a dense deciduous forest of oak, hazel and other species.