Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees: Series 1

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees: Series 1: Part 2: Ash

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Part 2 Part 2: Ash

The Meaning of Trees

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Meaning of Trees, Series 1, AshClose menu

Fiona Stafford on the history and symbolism of ash trees, threatened by dieback disease.

Fiona Stafford on the history and symbolism of ash trees, threatened by dieback disease. Despite many different epidemics over the centuries, delicate ash trees have survived.

Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises about five different trees and, across the series of essays, our ambiguous relationship with trees.

In this Essay she tackles the tree which has suddenly hit the headliness. The Ash has been threatened by the arrival in Britain of dieback disease. But the Ash has survived since the birth of humanity and met mortal threats before. 
Despite many different near fatal epidemics over the centuries, delicate ash trees have survived for millennia.

Our history with the ash is long. The ash exudes a sugary substance that was fermented to create the Norse Mead of Inspiration. In Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is commonly held to be an ash tree, and the first man, Ask, was formed from an ash tree. Elsewhere in Europe, snakes were said to be repelled by ash leaves, shadows from an ash tree would damage crops, ash was thought to cure warts or rickets and in Sussex the ash was known as the Widow Maker because the large boughs would often drop without warning.

Ash is musical, often used as material for guitar bodies and drum shells.Charmingly, ash is still used for suspension in Morgan cars. But how will we start to replace this flexible, delicate yet persistent wood and protect the timber from which humanity was formed, while it fights off yet another threat to its own existence?

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees

Series 1

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Fiona Stafford explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of trees

Professor Fiona Stafford of Oxford University explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises about different trees, as well as our ambiguous relationship with them.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

The Meaning of Trees

Series 1

Part 2: Ash

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3