Featuring giant redwood / giant sequoia. Verified occurrence recorded by Redwood World. Here in All Saints church Purleigh stand two Giant Redwood (Tree Nos. 1 & 2) and a Dawn Redwood (Tree No. 3). One of the Giant Redwood trees (Tree No. 1) is shown in the photographs above and stands tall and proud, a picture of health. The branches missing on one side are due to other trees that were growing beside it until fairly recently. This is a natural phenomenon where the tree discards its branches when shaded. No doubt in order to conserve energy for rocketing skyward. The other Giant Redwood (Tree No. 2), in the photographs below, became a stark reminder of these trees' most fearsome enemy - lightning strikes. Many of Britain's Giant Redwoods will have suffered lightning damage at some time in their long lives - it is just one of the hazards for any tall tree. Usually they will simply suffer a frazzled top and perhaps a burn mark down the trunk, but they soon recover and continue venturing upward once again. This time, things were a little different! It looks as though an immense blast had hit this tree, and as you can see in the 2005 picture, it left us with very little of the original. It had been tidied and made safe by a firm of arboriculturists. There was still plenty of green foliage on the remaining one third or so of the tree and this looked in good health, but its future had been the subject of some debate in Purleigh Parish council in September 2003. The strike happened on Monday 11th August 2003. A very black Monday indeed and yet, as you can see in the photographs below, the tree recovered and was still growing vigorously sixteen years later in 2019.
Visit information
- Access
- Open to public
- Last verified
- 10 Apr 2026
- Official site
- redwoodworld.co.uk/picturepages/purleigh.htm
Redwood species here
Native to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, giant sequoias were introduced to Britain in the 1850s during the Victorian plant-collecting era. They are the world's most massive trees by volume and have thrived in the UK's mild, wet climate, often growing faster than in parts of their native range. Many Victorian-era plantings now rival mature specimens in California.
Present. Native to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, giant sequoias were introduced to Britain in the 1850s during the Victorian plant-collecting era. They are the world's most massive trees by volume
Field observations
Photos
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Redwood at Purleigh - All Saints Church
About this place
About Purleigh - All Saints Church
Purleigh - All Saints Church is located in Purleigh, Essex, England.
Species Present
Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Native to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, giant sequoias were introduced to Britain in the 1850s during the Victorian plant-collecting era. They are the world's most massive trees by volume and have thrived in the UK's mild, wet climate, often growing faster than in their native range. Many Victorian-era plantings now rival mature specimens in California.
Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
The tallest trees on Earth, coast redwoods can exceed 100 metres in their native California. Less common in Britain than giant sequoias, they prefer sheltered, moist locations and can still reach impressive heights in the UK. The tallest known coast redwood in Britain is over 50 metres.
Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
A deciduous conifer thought to be extinct until rediscovered in a remote Chinese province in 1941. Seeds were distributed to botanical gardens worldwide in the late 1940s. Unlike its evergreen relatives, the dawn redwood loses its needles in winter, turning a striking copper-bronze in autumn.
Access
This location appears to be publicly accessible. Please check locally for current opening times and any admission charges.
Data sourced from Redwood World (redwoodworld.co.uk) and enriched by Redwood Finder.