Scraping your knees and feeling the wind ruffling your hair as you climb a tree is a timeless childhood tradition. Where there are trees and humans, there has always been Treehouses – a place to sleep, to eat and to dream. Our most distant ancestors were tree-dwellers, living where they were safe from prowling animals, disease and floodwaters. Throughout history, right up to the present day, there are fascinating accounts of the building of homes in the treetops.
Many famous people have built treehouses. John Lennon had one overlooking the strawberry fields orphanage and Winston Churchill constructed a treehouse twenty feet up a lime tree at his home in Chartwell near Westerham.
Britain is home to one of the oldest treehouses still in existence. At Pitchford Hall, situated on private land near Action Burnell in Shropshire, which was constructed during the 16th century. Queen Victoria visited the tree house in 1832 when she was a young Princess.
The most famous European example though, was the restaurant dubbed ‘Les Robinsons’, eight miles west of Paris. From 1848 onwards, chic Parisians spent Sundays eating and drinking in the trees. A popular meal was roast chicken and champagne – each course hoisted up by the guest in a basket pulley. In it’s heyday there were two hundred tables available and it was a popular venue for hosting family celebrations and weddings. More than 150 years later High Life Treehouses are continuing the tradition in the UK.
