The Nile Clumps | |
|---|---|
 The Nile Clumps (which are on private land) seen from an information board on a public bridleway | |
  The Nile Clumps Location in Wiltshire | |
| Coordinates: 51°10′41″N1°48′11″W / 51.178°N 1.803°W | |
| Location | Wiltshire, England, UK |
The Nile Clumps are a series of tree clumps just west of Amesbury on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, planted in the early 19th century purportedly to commemorate the Battle of the Nile.
Between 1 and 3 August 1798 a British fleet, under Admiral Horatio Nelson, defeated a French fleet, under François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, in Aboukir Bay, in the Battle of the Nile. The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates, while Nelson had fourteen ships of the line. All but four of the French ships were destroyed or captured; no British ships were lost.
After Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar, it is believed that Charles Douglas, 6th Marquess of Queensberry – a friend of Nelson's mistress, Emma Hamilton – planted clumps of beech trees on his Amesbury Abbey estate to commemorate him, as part of an expansion of the parkland to the north and west of the house. [1] Each clump represented the location of a British or French ship at a particular point in the battle.
There may have been as many as twenty-six clumps originally, spread out over three-quarters of a mile.
Seventeen clumps remain today and are under preservation orders. [2] However, as beech has a natural life of some 200 years, many are dying off. Around 2005, several clumps were replanted by local volunteers, [3] each with about 200 mixed trees including beech, maple and hawthorn. Amongst the clumps that have been replanted are those for Swiftsure, Defence, L'Orient and Bellerophon.
The evidence that the clumps were planted to commemorate the battle is based on local lore and a similarity between the layout of the woods and the position of ships shown in Robert Dodd's map of the battle. The UK National Maritime Museum has also suggested that the link between the Battle of the Nile and the clumps is "quite likely". [4]
Most of the surviving clumps stand on the north side of the A303 to the west of Amesbury and inside the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, although several used to stand south and along the course of the road. Several of the remaining clumps stand on land owned by the National Trust's Stonehenge Landscape property.
A plaque on the Nelson Memorial at Swarland, Northumberland mentions a line of trees in the shape of the coastline of the Nile delta, with other trees in the positions of the British and French ships, to the west of the monument. Aerial photographs suggest that the trees may be at 55°19′10.72″N1°44′20.25″W / 55.3196444°N 1.7389583°W .
The Nile Clumps are sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Trafalgar Clumps. In 2005, a Trafalgar Woods project organised by the Woodland Trust and the Society for Nautical Research aimed to plant 250,000 trees in a series of woods across the UK, to commemorate the 2005 bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. [5] The 27 new woods each represented a ship which took part in the battle, the largest being Victory Wood in Kent. [6]
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from the 1st to the 3rd of August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had raged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
Amesbury is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settled around 8820 BC. The parish includes the hamlets of Ratfyn and West Amesbury, and part of Boscombe Down military airfield.
Earl Nelson, of Trafalgar and of Merton in the County of Surrey, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 20 November 1805 for the Rev. William Nelson, 2nd Baron Nelson, one month after the death of his younger brother Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, the famous naval hero of the Napoleonic Wars and victor of the Battle of Trafalgar of 21 October 1805. The title is extant, the present holder being Simon Nelson, 10th Earl Nelson, who has an heir apparent. The family seat of Trafalgar House in Wiltshire was sold in 1948 by Edward Nelson, 5th Earl Nelson.
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Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.
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The Stonehenge Landscape is a property of The National Trust, located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. The estate covers 2,100 acres (850 ha) surrounding the neolithic monument of Stonehenge, which is administered by English Heritage. Much of the land is designated open access by the Trust, including the fields immediately around Stonehenge and other fields that become available as part of the chalk grassland reversion project. Stonehenge itself is in the care of English Heritage, having been given to the nation in 1918 by Cecil and Mary Chubb, who had bought it three years previously from the Antrobus family.
Founded in 1967, Earth Trust is an environmental charity which was originally known as the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation. Earth Trust was initially established by the British engineer Sir Martin Wood to promote environmental conservation through land management, education, and land science. It is a registered charity under English law.
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Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758–1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars, most notably in the Battle of Trafalgar, during which he was killed. He was responsible for several famous victories that helped to secure British control of the seas, both securing Britain from French invasion and frustrating Napoleon's imperial ambitions. After his death during his defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, there was a public outpouring of grief. Nelson was accorded a state funeral and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
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