Our World War 1 Memorial at The Nursery

If you drive past our nursery at this time of year, you will see a band of maples out in their red autumnal colours. These were planted by CGJ Mathias’ father in law who originally came to this area during the First World War with the Canadian Army to help fell woodlands for the war effort. After the Second World War he took it upon himself to personally replant a great area of the woodlands in the South Farnham area that he had cut down three decades earlier. As part of this, he planted maples along the Tilford Road in lasting remembrance of his Canadian friends and colleagues that were killed during the great conflicts. He grew these maples from seed that he collected from his home town of Toronto so they are genuine Canadian trees.

It provides a stunning backdrop to our nursery at this time of year and serves as a reminder to a small piece of local history that we are proud to have a connection to. We will happily tell the story to customers visiting us but be quick though, the leaves will have fallen off before too long and these special colours will be lost until this time next year!