News from Project Hougoumont
It is disappointing to have to report that we are still waiting for the provincial government of Wallonia to grant us permission to plant trees and hedges around Hougoumont. We and Kleber Roussillon, who manage the battlefield, have been told repeatedly that a permit is about to be issued, but nearly three years have passed and no permit has been received.
This is intensely frustrating. A generous UK benefactor has given Project Hougoumont the money to fund the project and Majestic Trees of Harpenden are lined up and ready to go, but at the time of writing it seems likely that a third winter will go by and another planting season will have been wasted. Meanwhile, the young sweet chestnut trees grown in Wiltshire by Pen Milburn from chestnuts gathered under the shot-marked veterans near the south gate are growing ever taller and more difficult and expensive to transport.
Martin Drury
Trustee, Project Hougoumont
5th October 2020