The Shaden Tuft oak

Within the Churchill Inclosure in the Forest of Dean, there stands a large pollarded oak, it has been named the Shaden Tuft oak and unusually for a woodland tree, has been assigned a fairly precise planting date of 1599 and has been used as an example for dating of veteran and ancient trees in a Forestry Commission report. In an historical context, at the time of the oaks planting, Queen Elizabeth I was the reigning monarch and William Shakespeare was putting quill to ink and writing some of the finest works in the English language. The tree has also withstood some remarkable weather - great storms, droughts and the cold of the 'little ice age'.

Shaden Tuft oak

If the pollarding of the Shaden Tuft oak wasn't the result of storm breakage, then it hints at the possible woodland management regime at the time and the pollarding has probably ensured its continued presence, overlooked by Royal Navy shipwrights and then successive generations of timber merchants. Whilst not being particularly notable for its age - it is entering the oak equivalence of middle age - and all being well, should witness the events of the 26th C unfold.

I have wandered past this tree, I guess on average a couple of times a year for well over a decade and its presence gives continuity to the woodland and a tangible link to the past. There's something about old trees that provides a wood with a certain je ne sais quoi and I am no doubt that the woodland would be a poorer place in the absence of the older trees.