Here Blyth describes how he and his wife were inspired to plant the Tree Cathedral after a visit to Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral in the autumn of 1930:

'This interested us very much, with the beauty of its design and the colouring and craftsmanship of its pink sandstone. As we talked of it we thought what a wonderful and inspiring thing it must be for the workers to be engaged on.

'We talked of this as we drove south through the Cotswold Hills on our way home and it was while we were doing this that I saw the evening sun light up a coppice of trees on the side of a hill. It occurred to me then that here was something more beautiful still and the idea formed of building a cathedral with trees.

'This set me studying the architectural shapes of the common English trees and their colouring. It led me not only to choosing suitable trees for the purpose of the Tree Cathedral but to a delight in watching trees, particularly their behaviour in wind and storm and the effect of light upon leaves and bark. I can recommend this as adding considerably to the enjoyment of country walks. The secret is to look at the top of a tree first.

'I want you to imagine this field as it was in 1930. Where we are standing was my chicken run. Mrs Turvey kept her chickens in the run next door. I started by planting a 'nave' which now forms the north and south Transepts. This was in 1932. Poplars were used at 10ft intervals to give pillar effect.

[This was, Mr Blyth knew, risky on a clay soil; and the poplars eventually failed. The transepts are now formed by horse chestnuts which he had planted as an inner avenue to form a roof.]

'For the sanctuary I planted a deodar cedar, which is a tree with an apex, and surrounded it with Scots pine, a tree which when old has few low branches and a bushy top.

'In 1933, at my wife's suggestion, I planted two chapels to fill in the corners between the nave and the transepts. The first of these was an Easter chapel constructed of cherry trees in the form of a square, with an almond tree in the middle. The winter chapel was planned in the shape of a star with a tree in the middle. All trees in this chapel are Norway spruce, the traditional Christmas tree.

'With the planting of chapels the need for walls arose and I decided on the use for this pupose of laurel. The outer wall of the winter chapel is of Laurustinus. This is a native of South East Europe and flowers in winter. It forms a wall which fills in the lower branches of the spruce.

'In 1935, I had the idea of enlarging the Tree Cathedral and turning its transepts into the main nave. I used Lombardy poplars again for pillar effect with laurel for walls. This time however I decided against roofing it over and thought it better for the nave to be open to the sky.

[When these poplars too failed, they were replaced with an inner avenue of limes, which have, however, tended to form a roof.]

'The tree chosen to form the main sanctuary at the east end of the nave and represent the high altar was silver birch, called by Coleridge 'the lady of the woods', perhaps the most graceful of our forest trees. As a background to these I planted a hedge of yew.'

The design was further enlarged on the north and west sides in 1938/9 to provide room for a newly-made dew-pond. The pond is set at the centre of a cloister-garden, and surrounded by flowering shrubs. Each corner of the cloister is marked by a 'tower' planted round a hollow, where chalk had once been extracted to burn into lime to 'sweeten' the clay soil.