King Charles III has planted an oak sapling from the ancient Pontfadog Oak, alongside The First Minister of Wales during a visit to Erddig today (Friday, December 9).
The King has previously visited Erddig, having officially opened it in June 1977, and again in July 2022 to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the National Trust’s care.
This time, the visit saw His Majesty and the First Minster planting an oak sapling that was gifted to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The sapling from the Pontfadog Oak, which had been looked after by generations of the Williams family at Cilcohwyn Farm near Chirk, was planted in memoriam to honour of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The Pontfadog Oak fell during a storm in 2013 and had been reputed to be one of the biggest and oldest oak trees in the world. Later, The Crown Estate successfully managed to propagate the original Pontfadog Oak tree and plant a tree in Windsor Great Park, which remains on the estate.
Five others have since been grafted, with three being gifted to National Trust Cymru and the other two are being cared for by the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
During the visit, the King was received by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Charles Barnett before he and the First Minister were introduced to the Director-General of the National Trust, Hilary McGrady and Director for Wales, National Trust Cymru, Lhosa Daly.
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His Majesty was shown an apple display by head and senior gardeners, Glyn Smith and Helen Eardly.
They also met with volunteering and community involvement manager for North East Wales, Susan Jones and visitor experience and operations manager for Erddig, Anne Kurdock, who talked about Erddig's Christmas decorations and community work.
His Majesty was also invited to plant a copper beech tree with youth volunteers, which is part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative.
The volunteers, Emily Roberts and Sian Evans have promised His Majesty that they will keep good care of the tree.
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They said he was pleased that there were young people working on projects at Erddig.
Emily said: "It was good, it was the first time I've met any royalty, he had quite a calming presence. He seemed quite interested in what we're doing here and he liked the tree. He gave it a handshake as well as us!"
Sian added: "Today was really surreal but trying to keep this a secret was something else!"
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