ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical development of a Victorian cemetery in Bristol—Arnos Vale—n order to discuss how the non-human agency of trees has been enrolled into particular networks of environmental change and conservation. It argues that trees have both acted as socialized actors in the narrative of the changing nature of Arnos Vale and contributed significantly to the relational agencies involved. The chapter explores some of the complexities, uncertainties and dynamics which permeate the essential interdependence between people, trees and places. The roots of exploration are twofold. First, it contends that place characteristics are often wrapped up in the dynamic presences and absences of the living being of what is commonly constructed as nature. Second point and one which underlines the first, is once again the desire to take non-human agency seriously, but it shows it doing different kinds of work.
