You were on the job for the great elm tree removal in the mid 70ās. I recall that this was made a great deal easier when a massive gale blew almost all of them down. Hyde Pk/Ken Gdns looked like a battlefield where The Ents had taken a beating.
I have never been so cold as the month we spent in the gardens of Buck Pal taking down the elms there. It was Jan. The lake froze solid enough for the guy who looked after Brendaās collection of exotic waterfowl to walk across with his wheelbarrow of food. But it also meant that the flamingos, kept perfectly pink by a daily bucketful of shrimps, took to trying to escape from the island across the ice.
How we laughed! Flamingos tottering about with their backward knees, falling flat on their beaks - one or two actually made it and had to be rounded up. I can add chasing Her Majetyās escaping flamingos to my list of bizarre jobs.
Taking down the elms was a real grunt. Not so much as a twig was allowed to fall onto the grass. Each tree had to have all the limbs roped down. Then the trunks had to be sliced off in sections that could be carried by one man, as we were not allowed to have so much as a wheelbarrow, let alone a L-R and trailer, on the lawns. Meanwhile we were constantly being shouted at by the head gardener, a man with the unlikely name of Fred Nutbeam, who used to ride about on a bicycle, steering with one hand and toting a 12-bore in the other to shoot crows.
āYou boys mind my edges!ā he would roar. The edges of lawn to pathway had to be a perfect rt angle.
Her Maj used to take a turn round the gardens - 22 acres - every afternoon at 4pm, with headscarfe, and a selection of labradors ā¦
We were instructed, if approached by HM, to answer a question to which we did not know the answer with, āI donāt know Maāamā. B.S, was not permitted because H.M. never asks a question to which she does not already know the answer, we were told.
Every sign of a tree having been in a spot was to be eliminated. Once down to the stump, a stump grinder was permitted onto the lawns to remove the stump. Every speck of sawdust was then to be removed. The gardeners then turfed over the spot and, in a few days, you couldnāt see the join, as Eric used to say about Ernieās supposed toupee.
HM stayed well clear of us rough lads ā¦
my thoughts are with you.