Case Study

Scofell is working on a project in Market Street, Newbury, as part of a housing project in the centre of this Berkshire town.

Scofell’s contribution to the landscaping project involved installing several trees in the street. To do this, we first laid a series of tree crates below ground level. These crates are specially designed for growing trees in urban areas: they are filled with lightweight soil to stop compaction, and the tree roots can move freely around inside them. The crates not only protect the trees from soil compaction, but also contain the roots, so they do not disrupt the pavement and the buildings nearby.

The next step was to plant the trees inside the tree crates. The three field maples were relatively straightforward; they were smallish rootballed trees, which we secured with tree anchors and then fitted resin-bonded tree grills.

The major challenge was in February 2022: installing a mature 40ft tall oak tree, which had been shipped in from the Netherlands. A massive tree like this would normally be put in by crane, but it arrived at the same time as Storm Eunice, and no cranes were operating. The tree had to be planted as soon as possible, so we used a forklift truck to carry it through the streets of Newbury to get it into place and anchored securely into the ground.

All’s well that ends well, and the trees were all safely installed and are thriving. The project is continuing, and we are still installing more trees to inject more greenery into the Market Street development.