Songs Beneath the Trees – The Silver Birch

Songs Beneath the Trees is a collection of songs written specifically for Sibden Hill in Shanklin. Follow the trail to hear five beautiful songs under the trees that inspired local musician, Paul Armfield, to create them.

I tried to encapsulate much of the lore and old wives’ tales associated with this ‘Lady Of The Woods’, It is the tree of healing and renewal and is often the first to appear on cleared land. I reference a wonderful poem ‘Birches’ by Robert Frost. On some of the trees on Sibden Hill there was quite a lot of lichen and I’ve tried to evoke that subtle contrast of colours, the pale green turquoise against the bark. Tennyson was the first to describe them as ‘silver’.