Britain has the highest number of ancient trees, even though it is one of the least forested countries in northern Europe.
Many of those trees have lived for more than 1,000 years. One such tree, the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, is thought to be 4,000 years old to make it the oldest living organism in Europe. Over the centuries residents have revered these sentinels and even given them names.
Huge swathes of forest were felled by neolithic peoples when they began to settle and farm the landscape. This trend continues to this day, but working trees in the shape of ancient pollards can be found in many of Britain’s forests. Monarchs protected trees under forest law and are often near royal palaces and battlefields. This accounts in part why so many of them still can be seen today.
Many trees were burned down, or felled by storms. The great storm of 1987 toppled 15 million trees and highlighted the face that Beech trees shallow root systems do little to protect them. Oaks fared better. Residential development is another factor in their decline.
Ancient forests such as Sherwood, The New Forest, Forest of Dean, and the Caledonian Woods in Scotland are the British equivalent of rain forest locking up harmful CO2 gases and provide habitat for wildlife and green spaces for the public. Once gone, they will take hundreds of years for those great trees to grow again.
The last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago retreated and native trees colonized Britain. Those ancient trees are links to the past providing a fragile reminder in an ever-changing world. Britain’s trees are an island story as well as a human one.
Trees live through three stages of life: Youth, maturity, and decline. A tree with a reducing crown and gnarled heavy hollow trunk is likely to be older than a larger crowned mature tree. Factors such as climate and location affect trees.
The way to accurately record the age of a tree is to count the annual growth rings within its trunk. Using an auger, a core sample can be removed from a tree and analyzed for accurate counting.
As Britain’s largest native tree, the oak, has come to symbolize the very essence of England. The oak is the king of the forest. It long has been valued for house- and ship-building due to its great strength. An oak can live for 20 years before bearing fruit, the familiar acorn, which provides food for birds. The direct translation of the Latin name Quercus (Oak) and robur (strength) alludes to the physical and spiritual power that the mighty oak has demonstrated for eons.
In 1664, May 29, was made a public holiday by Act of Parliament. People would wear sprigs of oak with oak apples in celebration and remembrance of the day when Charles hid from the Parliamentarian troops in the oak tree at Boscobel. Maypole-dancing took place and the streets were hung with oak boughs. This holiday was formally abolished in 1859, but is still celebrated in some English towns.
Many of Britain’s ancient trees are listed on the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest and awarded Grade II status, thus affording them the protection the trees need. Ancient oaks can sway with the wind and thus can withstand everything the elements can throw at them.
Be it the walnut or the yew, the evergreen spruce, or the mighty oak, trees are magnificent and sacred, profound, and uniquely-beautiful on this Earth.