Gloucestershire arboretum to plant Anne Frank sapling

Despite a successful bid to stop it being chopped down, the tree was toppled in heavy storms

A cutting from a horse chestnut tree, immortalised in the famous diary of Anne Frank, is ready to be planted at Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire.

The original, which brought comfort to the Jewish teenager as she hid from Nazis at a house in Amsterdam, was toppled by storms earlier this week.

The cutting was one of 10 taken from the 150-year-old tree and brought back to towns across England last year.

The Batsford sapling is now said to be ready to go into the ground.

Bravery and suffering

The original horse chestnut could be seen from Anne Frank's attic window and was her only connection to the outside world.

She regularly wrote about it in her diary.

After her death at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, it became a memorial to her bravery and suffering.

The sapling grew from a cutting taken from the original horse chestnut last year

In recent years, it had become diseased and rotten and despite a successful bid to stop it being chopped down, it succumbed to high winds and heavy rain.

Batsford Trustee Tony Russell said: "The demise of such an important and cherished tree is a very sad event indeed, but it is heartening to know that Anne Frank's tree will live on through its young offspring."

The sapling is now 60cm (24in tall) and in full leaf and is to be planted in the grounds of the arboretum on 25 September, with the help of youngsters from the Girlguiding Association which is celebrating its centenary.

The Anne Frank Trust said other cuttings went to HMP Preston, Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, the Business Design Centre at Islington, Bradford and Durham. Others did not survive or have not been donated yet.

A spokeswoman said there were no plans yet to replace the original in Amsterdam.