I recently became aware of "The Wishing Tree" near Cinderford in the Forest of Dean and we undertook a walk that included stopping off at it. It is a tree - in this instance a dead one - where people hammer a coin into the trunk and make a wish. Until I became aware of this example I didn't know that it is one of a number of such trees found in the British Isles. The idea of it sounds to be of great antiquity, and I suppose in some ways it is like the love token involving locks fixed to the railings of bridges. I had imagined that this Wishing Tree would be away from other trees giving it greature stature, but it was fairly closely surrounded by others and relatively hard to find.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Nikon Z 5
