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• The giant Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square is the 44th tree the city of Oslo has given to the city of London.
The first was sent in 1947 as a f6ft of appreciation to Londoners for giving refuge to the Norwegian Royal family during the Second World War. After five years of German occupation Norway was a poor country, but it had an ample supply of Christmas trees — about two-thirds of the city of Oslo is forested. The forests are run commercially and the logging truck drivers have keys to the many gates barring public access to the roads running through the plantations.
The forestry commission chose a perfect day for the tree-cutting. A few inches of snow had fallen the previous day and the sun shone just above the horizon in a cloudless sky. It was 11°C in Rustadsaga in the eastern forests of Oslo.
The tree cutting has become a ceremony. The Mayor of Oslo and the British Ambassador to Norway are always in attendance; Oslo Forestry Commission workers are out early to make a bonfire, coffee and a hot blackcurrant drink on the fire. Visitors sit on cut tree trunks; crosscountry skiers turn up to watch, and the informal ceremony has an air of goodwill.
There are speeches, inevitably. British Ambassador David Ratford said he could remember the first time he saw the tree in Trafalgar Square when he was 12. The trees had a special place in every Londoner's heart, he said, as a reminder of the two nations' common efforts during the war.
The mayor and the ambassador joined hands on the traditional saw to cut the final inch through the trunk.
Then the modern technology took over. A mobile crane held the tree until it could be laid carefully into the truck's cradle. The cradles are specially made (from spruce) every year to the dimensions of the chosen tree. This year's tree is a beautiful 50-year-old 23m spruce weighing 1,600kg. The commission's Scania 113 short wheelbase 4x4 with long 'pole trailer' hauled the tree out of the forest.
Einar Antes, the Scania driver, says traction is not a problem on the narrow forest roads, but the non-steering trailer made it slightly awkward as the complete rig is 30m long. For this reason he did not take it down to the docks until early the next morning.
A few days later in England, driver Dave Barrs from Vanguard Engineering in Greenford, West London, warmed himself with a mug of tea in the early morning chill while his MAN 26.362 was warming up in the yard.
The job sheet warns of the danger of sabotage — a few years ago the top couple of metres was lopped off while the tree was still in the docks!
Barrs had to be on the dockside by 09:00hrs. Unfortunately an accident on the A45 had closed the dock road and the truck crawled for 21/2 hours from Ipswich to Felixstowe, where it drew alongside the precious load watched over by a lone policeman. The television crews had completed their work and gone.
Bans stretched the trailer to full length and a giant dock crane inched into position. Slings were placed round the tree and Captain Gunnar Hertzberg of the Boracay caine ashore to see his cargo being loaded. The tree, cradle still attached, was lifted and lowered on to the trailer. A gusting wind made the job a bit tricky but Barrs soon overcame the problems. After a long wait for Customs clearance and a clean bill of health from the Forestry Commisssion, the truck left the dockside and just as it was getting dark the rig arrived at Vanguard's yard. UK stage one was complete.
Stage two started at 06:00hrs on Monday, Barrs was joined by Ron Cox, Paul Footwells and Mark Peters whose job was to crane the tree into position in Trafalgar Square. The truck inched out of the yard, the lads watching the corners and holding back the early rush-hour traffic on Western Avenue. The MAN was joined by a 25-tonne Krupp mobile crane and the tackle van.
The Vanguard team assembled the crane in Trafalgar Square and Westminster City Council staff set up the complicated securing system called — "the pot" into the square. Up went the tree on the crane, gently down into the pot, the clamps were tightened and the slings removed. All that remained now was for the Norwegian Ambassador His Excellency Kjell Eliassen to switch the lights on a few days later.