A SEDBURY man who has just sold his house says a rare tree goes with it ... the same species as the one controversially 'topped' recently at Chepstow's town centre bandstand.
"It's a Paulownia tree which is quite rare – but what makes this one even more rare is that it bears flowers and apparently there are only seven trees in Britain that have blossomed," said Ken Pritchard.
The large tree is in the one-acre grounds of semi-detached Whitcliff Cottage, at Buttington which he has owned with his partner Julia Davis for around eight years.
"It is about 55ft tall and it blooms in the spring, with pink-blue flowers rather like a petunia," he said.
"Then when the blossom dies back there are these huge leaves."
He said the tree seemed to him to be quite old but he had no idea how it came to be planted there.
By coincidence Buttington, a hamlet on the Old Beachley Road near Sedbury, is a mile or so as the crow flies from the heart of Chepstow across the River Wye.
There, the town bandstand was shaded by a Paulownia tree for several years, but it was cut down recently.
Controversy surrounded its felling, with many local people calling for it to be left alone.