Dressing the Arbor Tree

A poplar in the village street wears its flags all year. Once a year, it gets new ones.

In the middle of Aston on Clun stands a black poplar hung with flags all year round. On Arbor Day, the last Sunday in May, the flags are renewed in a tree-dressing ceremony; in 2026 it was held on 31 May, with music, history and a blessing of the flags and tree at 1pm, followed by a village fete. Organisers link it to Oak Apple Day, to St Bride and to a squire's wedding on 29 May 1786. Plant-Lore notes that John Box, writing in Folklore in 2003, found no mention of the tree before 1898 and no dressing before 1912. It is billed as the last such ceremony in the country.