The tree experts In The trees that made Britan, we follow Tony Kirkham and Jon Hammerton around the UK on their arboreal adventure - but what's their story?

In this article

Tony Kirkham

Jon Hammerton

We first met Tony in A Year at Kew in his role as Head of the Arboretum, where he has worked for over 28 years. In his new series, Tony and fellow arboriculture expert Jon Hammerton travel around the UK in search of The trees that made Britain.

Tony believes that every tree has a story to tell, and it was the tale of the horse chestnut in a science lesson at primary school that started a passion for trees which took him to Germany as a tree surgeon.

He returned to the UK to begin his career at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by completing a three-year diploma in horticulture and joining the Arboretum team. He’s now responsible for over 14,000 trees, and has travelled around the world to study many of these, so that he can learn how to replicate their natural habitats wherever possible at Kew.

Committed to the classroom, Tony lectures on the Kew Arboriculture Diploma course and is an examiner for the Royal Forestry Society. His books include The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers, and Plants From the Edge of the World.

Outside work Tony finds time for the garden at home, which he finds "very therapeutic", and a spot of fly fishing.

One of his favourite moments in the series was visiting the Glenlivet whiskey distillery, which for Tony was the ultimate mix of work and pleasure!

Jon's perfect working day would be spent in the Arboretum at Kew, climbing around the canopies of the veteran trees and important scientific collections, keeping them in shape.

After 19 years working at Kew, Jon is now the leading climber in the unit, but he wasn’t always as knowledgeable as he is today:

"I came as a total novice - I didn’t know an oak from a beech, a yucca from a shrub - my apprenticeship ran for about five years, and it was still just a job, but then these magnificent trees just grabbed me."

"Since then I've just been into it in a big way and pushed myself to get where I am today, which is team leader, and running a team at Kew and caring for these heritage trees - it's fantastic!"

Jon's favourite moment from the series was a climb of a different nature when he scaled the inside of Salisbury Cathedral spire. He said of this experience, "To see what oak does for buildings was just humbling."