MEMORY LANE: Tree expert was laid to rest in a field near his Oldfield home

SOME distance down the fields below Oldfield House at Oldfield, Oakworth, is a small clump of trees surrounded by a wall. Within the enclosure is the grave of James Mitchell, who lived at Oldfield House from about 1820 until his death in 1835 at the age of 72 years.

He was born in London in 1762 but his parents were originally from Halifax in Yorkshire. It is probable that his parents had died when he was still a boy and in accordance with the Poor Law he was sent back to their hometown into the care of the parish. Aged about 12 years old he was apprenticed to a nurseryman and planter to learn the art of propagating trees for woodland and orchards.

In 1786 he returned to London to work on the deforesting of Enfield Chase, a former royal hunting ground in Middlesex. The Chase had been divided after an enclosure act in 1777 and was being cleared of its ancient oak, beech and hornbeam. After four years he came back north to work for William Emes and John Webb, who were landscape designers. Following the death of William Emes in 1793 he continued to work for John Webb and rose to be one of his foremen. During his time with Webb, he undertook landscaping works at Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire, Frampton Court in Dorset – whose parklands were designed in 1790 by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown – and Houghton Hall near Shifnal in Shropshire.

Eleven years after joining Webb he obtained the stewardship of Stansted Park in Sussex, a large estate with woods and several farms. Once owned by the Earl of Halifax, it was now in a dilapidated state. He spent the following years restoring it for the owners, rebuilding the farms, constructing new roads, and improving the woods and farmland. He also did valuations of standing timber for landowners.

He retired in about 1820 and purchased Oldfield House and farm. He is said to have decorated his garden with statues, creating the impression of a small country estate. His farm of 14 acres was managed by a tenant, John Wood, and he divided his time between improving the farm and writing books on trees. His work Dendrologia; or, a Treatise of Forest Trees was printed in Keighley in 1827 and contained general advice about tree species, their planting and care, setting out plantations and orchards and creating new hedgerows. On the title page he announces himself as J Mitchell, F.J.B.S. & M.N.A. (Fellow of John Bull's Society and Master of No Arts).

His last wishes were to be buried on a small promontory below his house. The plot was to be fenced with a stone wall and a hawthorn tree was planted inside at each corner. A symbol of good hope, hawthorn blossom – known as 'may' – was used to decorate house doors on May Day. However, it was also associated with death and in the north it was bad luck to take it inside a house and it was known as 'deead men's blossom' on account of its acrid smell.

Many tales arose as to how he came to be buried in the field, the most popular being that he had his workmen roll a large stone down the hillside and that he would be buried where it came to rest. The stories appear to have arisen because a large boulder was placed over his grave in front of the memorial. The stone was probably put there because of his fear of grave robbers and during the last century it has been pulled off and now lies to one side against the wall.