Westonbirt Arboretum
Coordinates: 51°36′21″N 2°13′45″W / 51.605864°N 2.229237°W
Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission. Westonbirt Arboretum is located near the historic market town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, and is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom.
Planted in the heyday of Victorian plant hunting in the mid-19th century, today Westonbirt Arboretum is one of the finest tree collections in the world, carefully laid out within a Grade One listed historic landscape.
The arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission, which also manages Bedgebury Pinetum. Westonbirt Arboretum is supported by the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum charity. There has been evidence of coppicing at the site from 1292. First use of the name "Weston Birt" was in 1309. This was taken from Weston, a settlement to the west of Bowldown Road, and Birt from then lords of the manor, the Bret family.
The arboretum was established in 1829 by Robert Stayner Holford and was later extended by his son George Lindsay Holford. After the death of George in 1926, ownership of the arboretum passed to his nephew the fourth Earl of Morley, and eventually to the Forestry Commission in 1956. The Holford family's mansion Westonbirt House, became a girls' boarding school in 1927 when it was separated from the arboretum. Westonbirt Arboretum backs onto the Highgrove Estate of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
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