From HARWELL NEWS
No. 19 January 1983

BAGG'S TREE

Recently a very old elm tree known as Bagg's Tree was cut down. For centuries it had stood as a lone landmark in what was once West Field, about 250 yards east of an old track called "Winnow Way" leading up from the village to the Downs and the A34.

The tree does not appear to have stood on a recognised boundary as many others mentioned in old estate documents. Bagg's Tree was regarded as a fixed position in a large open field before the days of the enclosure awards.

John Loder, the farmer and landowner of Prince's Manor, Harwell, thus regarded it in the 16th Century, for he mentions it in his will in 1577 in connection with an endowment of 14 acres, 1 rood 35 perches "near Bagg's Tree". Nearly a century later a Christopher Elderfield also mentioned it in his will of 1652 with a further endowment at Harwell near Bagg's Tree. In 1908, these lands were leased out and the proceeds used for "the maintenance of the Parish Church and benefit of the Poor".

BAGG or BAGGA seems to have been an old personal name in the district with suggestions that it may refer to a "wood or grove" belonging to "Bagga".

The surname Bagg or Bag's has long been associated with this district from the middle ages. A member of our local community who is now 95 years old, can still remember from her younger days a Mr. Baggs being a "packman or better known today as a door to door salesman" coming to visit various houses in the village.

Betty Pyke

(The Harwell Charity Trustees are erecting 5 beech trees around the existing root of the old tree so that the spot will continue to be marked for years to come.)

From HARWELL: Village for a thousand years
(Harwell Parish Council 1985)

BAG(G)'S TREE

An ancient elm known as Bag's (formerly Bagg's) Tree, grew, until 1975, on the Downs above Harwell, between the Chilton track and the Winnaway. It gave its name to the surrounding field, and is mentioned in the John Loder charity as some fourteen acres awarded in lieu of Grove land in the West Field of Harwell, at the time of the enclosures (1802-05). It is still owned by the Harwell Parochial Charities.

Traditionally it is said to have marked the spot where Bagrun, king of the Danes, died of wounds on his way back to the Thames at Goring after being defeated by Alfred at the battle of Ashdown.

A succession of trees was probably planted over the centuries to mark the site. When the latest elm had to be felled, its trunk measured 4.3 metres round. Its age was estimated at about 275 - 300 years, roughly the life span of an elm.

Between 1695 and 1722, twelve people called Baggs are mentioned in the parish register as having been baptised or buried.

The Oxford Dictionary gives the verb bag(gg) as meaning cut (wheat etc.) with reaping-hook, originating in the seventeenth century; also badge, a verb with the same meaning, of unknown origin.