Monday 14 March 2022

Fabulous Folklore: Wishing Trees

A tree stump with lines of inserted coins, otherwise known as a Wishing Tree

Wishing Trees are found all over Great Britain and have a history that goes back hundreds of years. The idea is you hammer in a coin into the tree and this offering will help cure illness and disease.

Unfortunately it has become a bit of a trend and is damaging woodlands all across the country. People visiting woodlands for the day are hammering coins to make wishes and leave their mark.

This tree is in the woods beside Golitha Falls in Cornwall. Coins weren’t just left in this stump, but also across an entire trunk that had fallen. I know some people will think it doesn’t matter because it’s “just” a stump, but chemicals from the coins leak into the environment, and sadly people are hammering coins into trees that are still very much alive. It’s time we stopped this practice!

“𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲, 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞. 𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐈 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬.” ~ 𝐉.𝐑.𝐑. 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐧

If you’d like to leave an “offering” donate to woodland charities instead, our beautiful trees need all the help they can get.

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