John Thompson was a mover, planter and shaker in the arboreal world. Formerly working for the city as a landscape architect, his mission in life was to create beautiful tree-lined spaces for the benefit of local communities and wildlife. In his 74 years, he planted over 10,000 trees in many projects around the city of Oxford, including the wildlife reserve on Burgess Field, next to Port Meadow.
John was instrumental in creating the Forest of Oxford and it was this connection that led to the formation of the Wolvercote Tree Group, with his suggestion to the Wolvercote Commoners Committee that they assign a Tree warden for the Village. Peter Adams put his hand up and the Wolvercote Tree Group was born.
Even in the early years, John was a great influence and helped the group to set up several tree planting schemes, as well as a comprehensive tree map of the parish. Some of the earliest planting projects included the trees on the lower green (1993) and the gradual landscaping of Goose Green, which won an environmental award in 2006. His other initiatives around Wolvercote involving the Tree Group included planting replacement Black Poplars along the Thames bank and the Hurst Copse in Upper Wolvercote. He was also instrumental in creating the wildlife reserve on the old Cutteslowe allotments and the Wolvercote Tree Group was happy to be part of the first tree planting there.
John was hugely supportive when the Group decided to turn some unused allotments opposite the Trout Inn into a community orchard. Having acquired permission from the landowners, Oxford Preservation Trust, the group turned to him for help with funding for the first apple trees. He was happy to oblige and presented the group with 20 trees to get the project started. These were planted with the help of the Wolvercote Watch Group in 1993. The orchard has grown and matured since those early days, winning us a second environmental award in 2007.
It was around this time, when John moved to Wolvercote, that he joined the Tree Group committee, though in truth he had been an honorary member from the beginning. John was constantly thinking of the next space requiring trees and even at the AGM, two days before his death, he was drawing us into new projects. One of these was to plant trees in Nixey’s Field – a wish fulfilled by the Group with John’s memory in mind, in November 2019. The group has missed his vision and his refreshing approach, as well as the lively and entertaining discussions that accompanied a glass of wine at the end of our meetings.