There are 9 days in National Tree Week!, so today is the first bonus tree – Shane’s Tree, a Common Lime (Tilia x europaea), is the only tree on Aldfield Way, a quiet backstreet in Burngreave, near the Northern General Hospital.

Shane’s tree was threatened with felling in 2017, for ‘totally bonkers’ reasons. On July 5th 2017 the felling crew came but had to leave as there was no oversail permission and a car was parked underneath. On October 19th 2017 the crew came again, this time in the dark of early evening and started to climb the tree holding chainsaws, but the felling was again prevented.

Newly planted trees in the surrounding area have often suffered from deliberate vandalism, so the chances are low that the Erman’s Birch sapling originally planned as its replacement would have survived.

The tree provides a home for a variety of fauna including pigeons that regularly create their (rather untidy) nest in its branches, and the Lime Hawk moth – a large, pinky-buff coloured moth with green patches, whose caterpillars feed on the lime’s leaves.

In 2020 the offset kerb was removed and the hole filled with ordinary tarmac. Finally in 2021, a Street Tree Appraisal Report recommended retaining the tree “with no alterations to the road layout required”, as it’s a quiet road that “is accessible for impaired highway users”. Subsequently a new inlay around the tree was created, with work continuing into 2022.

The tree is looking magnificent, standing alone, bright green in Summer and sculptural in the Winter sunshine.