Canterbury Cricket Week ceremonies. As of 2017, there have been 166 Canterbury Cricket Weeks held. The week continued through the Second World War with cricket being held on the ground each season. The politician and journalist Bill Deedes wrote in 2000: "while the Second World War was on, I consoled myself by thinking that Canterbury Cricket Week, founded in 1842 with its tents and famous lime tree, unchanging in a changing world, was the sort of thing I was in business to preserve." Traditionally Canterbury Cricket Week has included a Ladies day with prizes being awarded for the best hat on the day.
Dule tree this a favoured species for this purpose. Leith Hall dates from about 1650 and the tree was possibly planted shortly after this. A rather gaunt and heavily branched tree, the trunk measures 116 cm in diameter. At Cessnock Castle near Galston, East Ayrshire is a dule tree, a gnarled specimen of "Castanea sativa" - sweet chestnut. An old beech tree is still known as a 'gallows tree' and grows in an exposed position near Monikie in Angus. The dule tree at Cassillis Castle in South Ayrshire was blown down in a great storm during the winter of 1939-40 and when