176-year-old felled Penllergare redwood 'one of UK's first'

A 176-year-old tree that was cut down "by mistake" may have been one of the first of its kind planted in the UK.

Documents suggest giant redwoods were first planted on the former Penllergare Estate, Swansea in 1842, a decade before the seeds are widely credited with being brought to Britain.

Enzo's Homes, which is building 80 new properties next to woodland, previously said the tree had been felled after it "was not marked up correctly."

The incident is being investigated.

Lee Turner, the Penllergare Trust's general manager, said the estate's original owner, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, had been a keen 19th Century botanist who imported plants from all over the world.

"We've got excellent records dating back the last couple of hundred years from when the Dillwyn Llewelyn family planted up the estate with these magnificent trees," he said.

"The earliest one recorded was in 1842. We can see that from some of the family's diaries during the period."

Despite the entries suggesting Mr Dillwyn Llewelyn was potentially the first person in Britain to have giant redwoods, no detail is given to where they were planted on the estate.

But in an assessment, Jeremy Barrell from Barrell Tree Consultancy, said the fact the tree was approximately 27m (88ft) tall and 1.6m (5ft) wide meant it "was likely to be one of the earliest introductions" and would "easily date" back to when they were first brought over from North America.

Mr Barrell said the tree was of visual and scientific importance "making it a Grade II Listed Heritage Tree, which can be compared to a Grade II Listed Building".

Swansea council and Natural Resources Wales said they were continuing to investigate and assess what action could be taken over the giant redwood, which had a tree preservation order protecting it.

More than 2,100 people have signed a petition calling for further action.

Neil Jones from Friends of the Earth Swansea, who started the petition, said: "It was an enormous tree and towered above everything else in the neighbourhood.

"You don't get trees like this everywhere, simply there aren't any of this kind old enough in Britain to be this big."

Despite its size and likely age, the Penllergare giant redwood was still relatively young, with some specimens in California being documented as thousands of years old and hundreds of feet high. `