Nile Clumps
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The Nile Clumps are a collection of beech trees near Amesbury on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, which were planted to commemorate the Battle of the Nile.
On the 1 August 1798, a British fleet, under Admiral Nelson, defeated a French fleet, under Francois Paul Brueys, in Aboukir Bay, in the Battle of the Nile. The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates. Nelson had fourteen ships of the line. All but four of the French ships were destroyed or captured. No British ships were lost. During the battle the 118 gun L'Orient exploded with the loss of over 700 men. The sound was heard in Rosetta, 32 kilometres away.
To commemorate Nelson's victory Charles Douglas, 6th Marquess of Queensberry, a friend of Nelson's mistress, Emma Hamilton, planted clumps of beech trees on his estate near Amesbury. Each clump represented the location of a British or French ship at a particular point in the battle. There are more than twenty clumps remaining, each of about 200 trees, spread out over three quarters of a mile. The woods are now under a preservation order. Beeches live about 200 years and many of the trees are now dying off and are being replanted by local volunteers. Amongst the clumps that have been replanted are those for Swiftsure, Defence, L'Orient and Bellerophon. The UK Telegraph national newspaper of the 20 June 1998 had an article on the clumps which gives further information on their replanting.
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 Dodd’s map of the battle. The UK National Maritime Museum has also written to a local historian stating that the link between the Battle of the Nile and the clumps is “quite likely”.
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.
The geographical coordinates of the site are .
[edit] Other woods commemorating Nelson's victories
On the 13th November 2003 the London Daily Mail reported that on the former Swarland Estate, near Alnwick [in North East England], once owned by Nelson's friend and agent Alexander Davison, a line of trees, viewed from above, takes on the shape of the coastline of the Nile delta. Other trees are in the positions of the British and French ships. Aerial photographs suggest that the trees may be at . Davison also erected an obelisk at Swarland. A plaque at the obelisk mentions the woods and states that they are to the west of the monument.
The Nile Clumps are sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Trafalgar Clumps. There is a separate Trafalgar Woods project to plant a total of 250,000 trees in a series of woods across the UK to commemorate the 2005 bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. There will be a total of 33 clumps, each representing a ship which took part in the battle. The largest will be Victory Wood in Kent with 100,000 trees.
