He has been at tree plantings to mark two coronations, 70 years apart.

And luckily the ceremony at Oxburgh Hall, near Swaffham, went smoother than the one held for a planting to mark the start of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in 1953.

Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfeld, the 10th Baronet of Oxburgh, has planted a three-year-old linden tree on the estate’s south lawn, seven decades after a copper beech tree was planted in honour of the previous monarch. 

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At the ceremony, the 79-year-old recalled helping to plant the copper beech when he was a boy - and the mischievous role he played.

On that day, two newly-minted half-crown coins with the Queen’s image were placed into the hole where the tree was to be set. 

Seizing his chance, young Henry deftly dived in to steal the coins. 

He ran off, with the estate’s gardener in hot pursuit. When the coins were retrieved they went back into the hole, and in went the tree.

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Henry has repeated this tradition, albeit without taking the coin back out, by placing a new 50p coin with King Charles III's image into the planting hole for the new tree, now called the Coronation Linden.

Donna Baldwin, general manager of the National Trust-owned property, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to plant a tree for our new King’s coronation and to have Sir Henry do the honours, 70 years after he helped plant the copper beech tree for Elizabeth II, creating together the future history of Oxburgh Estate.”

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The linden is the offspring of the historic trees that still line the walk through the estate’s ‘Wilderness’ pleasure garden. 

The Wilderness was created during the Victorian era, in the 19th century.  

Oxburgh Hall was built for Sir Henry’s ancestor, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld, in 1482.