Nearly 40 years ago, Avril and Christopher Rowlands planted a small Christmas tree outside their house.

The couple didn’t realise it would one day reach 50ft and would have to be decorated with more than 1000 lights using a cherry picker.

“We moved here in 1978 and planted a 9ft tree – we have been a bit surprised by how fast it’s grown,” Ms Rowlands told The Independent.

The fir tree when it was first planted outside the house in 1978 (Courtesy of Avril Rowlands)

“We’ve been talking to the firm who generously support it each year, providing a cherry picker to put up the lights, and helping take them down in January. What will we do if it gets much taller?”

The Rowlands, who live in the village of Inkberrow in Worcestershire, bought the fir tree at a garden centre. They are now 71 and 72.

Around 200 people came to see the 52ft tree, which is now much taller than their house, when they switched the traditional-style bulbs on last Sunday.

“We’ve thought about using LEDs, but they wouldn’t be as warm and glowing,” said Ms Rowland, a retired TV writer.

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Each year the couple ask visitors to donate to a different charity and have raised more than £1000 for Cancer Research and the Alzheimer’s Society in recent years.

“We’ve been raising money ever since the tree got big enough,” said Ms Rowland. “It’s gone up each year. We raised £550 just at the switch-on”.