A PARISH has planted a tree in its churchyard to commemorate the Queen’s 70th-anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Reverend Deb Smith, of St Mary's Church on South Street, planted and blessed a Golden Hornet crab apple tree after morning service on Sunday, March 13.

The tree, which was donated by Bridport Tree Planting, will be part of the Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique tree-planting initiative created to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Members of the congregation helped install the sapling between the church and the church hall. With its pink blossom and yellow fruit, it will be a feature of the busy passage between South Street and the playing fields and community orchard.

At Rev Smith’s suggestion, people welcomed the eight-foot tree by clapping.

Several people there had not planted a tree before, and helped remove and then replace the soil and added root-enhancing powder.

Joe Hackett, co-ordinator of Bridport Tree Planting, said the tree would complement the other two blossoming trees in the churchyard - a flowering plum and a hawthorn.

He said: “It's not the smallest tree we helped plant this season.

“Most of the saplings we planted or gave away to households were whips not more than two foot high. This one is tall and slender and maybe four or five years old but with luck now that it is freed from its pot it will spread out well and maybe grow to twenty feet.”

Bridport Tree Planting has planted nearly a thousand trees since the autumn, to meet its aims of doubling tree cover and enhancing biodiversity.