New Forest - Rhinefield Road (Hampshire)

It is difficult to do photographic justice to these two Giants! If you like Wellingtonia, take a trip deep into the New Forest to visit them - they can be found on the Tall Trees Trail Rhinefield. The pair are reckoned by the forestry commission to be the tallest trees in the forest - of this there can be little doubt. They are Huge. It is difficult to truly appreciate their height from the photograph, but with the full height of the tree in the picture, a person stood next to one would scarcely be noticed - and would definitely not be recognised. They were planted around 1860, and have survived to this time relatively unscathed. They have no signs of lightning or wind damage, it is probable that being in a forest has protected them from the elements to some degree. There is also an example of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) a few moments walk away. It is interesting to compare this with the Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) - it is quite big (5 metres in girth), but it is too crowded to be able to appreciate its height. Further along the Rhinefield Road there is an area of mixed conifers where the ground is covered in Coast Redwood saplings of 10cm or so high, seeded from the larger examples nearby. Thanks to Luke for providing the photographs (above and below) of his trip to the New Forest. These pictures all include people standing next to the trees as a comparison for size but you really have to visit them yourself to appreciate how very big they are. As mentioned above, in pictures showing the full height of the trees, it is difficult to spot the people next to the them (the bottom left picture). Radek sent the photographs below of two more Giant Sequoia on Rhinefield Road. He says "I did not have any tool to measure them but I would estimate number 1 to be 30 m - 35 m and number 2 to be 40 m – 45 m." Thanks Radek, unfortunately I must have missed them when I was there some years ago, I obviously spent too long admiring the others!

During a visit in 2010, I believe I found the two additional Giant Redwoods mentioned by Radek, these are included as numbers 9 and 10 in the table below. Also discovered were two Dawn Redwood, another younger Giant and two Coast Redwood in the Arboretum (numbers 4 to 8). This visit was also an opportunity to re-measure the two champion Giants. They measured up at an amazing 52.73m and 48.5m! I believe these to be pretty accurate records of their heights, obtained using a precision clinometer (not a professional grade device but certainly very accurate) and taking great care to allow for differences in base height. They had also grown in girth since the last measurement in 2005. Both trees have increased in height and girth by roughly two to three percent during the five year period, although a different and slightly less accurate instrument was used to measure the heights in 2005. In fact one of the reasons for this return visit was to reaffirm the highest one as being the tallest in the U.K.

Common Names and Latin Name	No.	Latitude and Longitude		OS National Grid	Elevation (above sea-level)	Height	Girth	Date Measured
		WGS84	OSGB36
Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum	1	N50.84384 W1.62241	N50.84328 W1.62101	SU 26681 04993	67ft (20.43m)	48.5m 47.5m	7.86m 7.62m	July 2010 April 2005
	2	N50.84366 W1.62241	N50.84310 W1.62101	SU 26681 04973	48ft (14.63m)	52.73m 51.5m	9.1m 8.84m	July 2010 April 2005
Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens	3	N50.84259 W1.62099	N50.84203 W1.61959	SU 26781 04854	102ft (31.10m)	43.4m --	5.14m 5.02m	July 2010 April 2005
Dawn Redwood Metasequoia glyptostrobodies	4	N50.84185 W1.62308	N50.84129 W1.62168	SU 26635 04771	115ft (35.06m)	11.3m	--	July 2010
	5	N50.84155 W1.62428	N50.84099 W1.62288	SU 26550 04738	126ft (38.41m)	1.95m	--	July 2010
Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum	6	N50.84137 W1.62413	N50.84081 W1.62273	SU 26561 04718	97ft (29.57m)	31.75m	3.78m	July 2010
Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens	7	N50.84132 W1.62415	N50.84076 W1.62275	SU 26560 04712	89ft (27.13m)	34.3m	2.99m	July 2010
	8	N50.84126 W1.62423	N50.84070 W1.62283	SU 26554 04705	83ft (25.30m)	33.9m	3.18m	July 2010
Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum	9	N50.83048 W1.61977	N50.82992 W1.61837	SU 26874 03508	118ft (35.98m)	40.2m	8.22m	July 2010
	10	N50.82989 W1.62030	N50.82933 W1.6189	SU 26837 03442	119ft (36.28m)	33.1m	7.1m	July 2010
Girth was measured at 1.5m from ground.