Today we welcomed the Mayor of Greenwich, Cllr Denise Hyland, who officially planted the tree and memorial bench in Shrewsbury Park close to the car park.

Committee members and some lucky children got to see the Mayor and hear her speech. She spoke movingly about the losses in our community from the pandemic and why it is so important for us all to remember those who didn’t make it through.

                                                        They then gave her a hand to plant the tree.

It is a Davidia involucrata, AKA the dove-tree, handkerchief tree, pocket handkerchief tree, or ghost tree,  a medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Nyssaceae. It is regarded as the only species in the monotypic genus Davidia and was previously included with tupelos in the dogwood family, Cornaceae.

The bench has a plaque with the following wording: