Shropshire Council – Cherry Tree Planting in Shropshire – HMD 2024
Activity information
Activity type: Private activity
Organisation name: Shropshire Council
Website: http://www.shropshire.gov.uk
Address:
Ellesmere Primary School
Elson Road
Ellesmere
Shropshire
SY12 9EU
United Kingdom
Here in Shropshire we find a different primary school each year, in different parts of our large rural county, at which to plant a cherry tree to commemorate the Holocaust and other genocides. The aim is to help primary school children to learn about the Holocaust in a way that will be age-appropriate and memorable.
We are planting our tree in the north this year, after planting two in Bridgnorth last year. It will be planted on the morning of Friday 26th January, within the grounds of Ellesmere Primary School, at 11.00a.m. The ceremony will conclude by noon.
They are Black Oliver flowering cherries, a variety native to the West Midlands, chosen to link in with the importance of fruiting trees in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It also illustrates our wish to show welcome for different faiths and communities within our local area, including the refugee families that we support from Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine.
We are holding a ceremony with the two interfaith forums, South Shropshire Interfaith Forum and Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum, the school itself, and the local Shropshire Council councillor Geoff Elner, in which we will think about the theme for the year, and say prayers and light candles, and in which the school will make a promise to look after their tree.
This year, we are also seeking to link with the community orchard fund established to mark the Coronation of King Charles III, given his continuing role as patron of the HMD Trust. This has been fully subscribed in Shropshire.
With our own remembrance orchard, we also go back to Mereside school in Shrewsbury, each year, where we planted the first tree in 2015 on communal land by a playground, to see how it is growing.
Mereside pupils help us to commemorate the genocide in Bosnia, through a ceremony at a special Remembering Srebrenica cherry tree planted in July 2021 at Shirehall in Shrewsbury, to coincide with Remembering Srebrenica Day on 11th July. This tree commemorates the humanitarian role of the armed forces.
There will now be 13 trees planted with primary schools, plus five that we planted with secondary schools in 2016, and the Srebrenica tree, therefore reaching across the county with our orchard of 19 trees.
Organiser Name
N/A N/A
Other organisation(s) involved
Shrewsbury Interfaith Forum; South Shropshire Interfaith Forum