This is an extract from the chapter on Usk Castle garden in the forthcoming book on the history of Usk, published by Logaston Press 2008

‘St.Barbe baker was born in 1889 and founded “The Men of the Trees” society in 1924. It is now the International Tree Foundation. He foresaw the devastation to the world climate that would ensue if the de-forestation that he had witnessed in the African Sahara and America were to continue. He started the campaign to save the giant Californian Redwoods(Sequoia Sempervirens) from logging in the 1930’s. His work in conservation helped lead to the establishment of the American National Parks, and his books (such as “I planted trees”) earned him a world-wide reputation. St.Barbe’s far-sighted work made him a genuine fore-runner of the ‘Eco’ movement of the C21. Henry Humphreys remembers as a child the charismatic figure leading tree-dances on the lawn at Usk Castle - and St.Barbe’s conversations were spell-binding even to the next generation. As a legacy of his friendship with Rudge Humphreys, he gave him a grove of Redwoods for the Castle Chase woods as a wedding present.