The charming Shropshire town home to spectacular pleached lime trees

There are many hidden gems across south Shropshire but Cleobury Mortimer’s historic flowing lime trees are a spectacle truly worth a trip.

The unique strings of branches stretch from tree to tree creating a continuous web of lush, verdant leaves, decorating a high street like no other.

The effect comes from a technique called pleaching - where all the limbs below two metres are removed to create a clear trunk, while the upper branches are trained from tree to tree using ropes or wires.

The intention is to create the effect of a ‘hedge on stilts’.

While the trees actually date back to 1897, when they were planted to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, their current form is a far more recent transformation.

Back in 2000, inspired by the pleaching she had seen on a trip to Bruges in Belgium, Cleobury Mortimer Horticultural Society member Jenny Vanderhook persuaded the town council to let the group take on the task of training the 17 trees along the street.

The change was not without controversy, with some residents at the time distraught at seeing branches lopped off the historic trees.

But 26 years on and the efforts have resulted in a spectacular run of trees scarcely seen anywhere across the country.

The maintenance and management of the trees is funded and organised by Cleobury Mortimer Town Council, with the Cleobury Gardeners helping out with an annual tidy up in June - and a financial contribution from fundraising events.

As part of their annual maintenance the trees are due for a trim by a specialist arboriculturist in October.

Flo Hadley, chair of Cleobury Gardeners, explained the history behind them.

She said: “One of our members of Cleobury Mortimer Horticultural Society as it was then, Jenny, she was shocked at how the county council would come and just chop them off from time to time, because they were getting too big and there was sap all over the pavements and over the houses.

“She went to Bruges cathedral and saw these lime trees that had been pleached, which is supposed to be like a hedge on stilts.

“And she came home and persuaded the parish council, as it was then, to let her have a go at doing the six that were at the bottom of the high street and it grew from there.

“She did them, along with the other members of the society and then the rest of them were done so there are now 17 in two sections.”

Flo said there is huge affection for the trees in the town and said she was not aware of any similar examples anywhere else in the country.

She said: “We are extremely proud of them, there are 17 in groups along the road and everyone says they are graceful and beautiful. They contribute to the environment in the fact they are there but also make the road look attractive, and also they are unique because we don’t know of any other towns which have a pollarded set of trees such as these - they are wonderful.”

She added that the people of the town remain incredibly proud of the ornate arrangement - as shown when the group raises funds to contribute towards their maintenance.

She said: “When you say why you are raising money people say these trees are magnificent and how lucky are people to have these right in the middle of their community and that’s how we feel.”