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03
Aug 2023
Lucky escape as tree falls outside Harrogate school
A Harrogate resident has spoken of her relief that nobody was hurt today when a tree from her garden fell outside a school.
The 50-foot beech tree crashed across Oatlands Drive at about 1pm, glancing the wall of St Aidan's Church of England High School opposite.
Fortunately it happened out of term time. However, Oatlands Drive is still a hive of activity at that time of day, with numerous pedestrians and vehicles passing by but fortunately nobody was doing so when the tree came down.
It fell from a garden belonging to Rowena Wright, who said:
Pedestrians navigate the fallen tree.
Ms Wright said she was working upstairs when she heard a noise and assumed it was caused by a workman next door.
Minutes later a motorist, who ironically turned out to be a tree surgeon on his way to a job, knocked on her door to tell her what had happened.
Oatlands Drive was blocked to traffic and pedestrians had to climb over the tree.
The tree looked healthy and Ms Wright, who has lived in the house for 30 years, thinks a combination of heavy rain weakening its roots and the weight at the top may have contributed to the incident.
The roots of the tree.
She added:
See the Stray Ferret's Facebook page for a video of the scene shortly after the incident.
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