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By Austin Farrel
Click on picture to enlarge
Austin Farrell
18 Gowan Lea
Burneside
LA9 6QX
01539 738 957
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There are not many living organisms surviving more than a
millennium of existence. There are probably even less still providing an
annual crop of offspring from acorns which ensure perpetuation of their
species. The best example I know of is the Ancient Marton Oak, in a part of
the rural Cheshire already renowned for its well stocked parkland and
specimen trees.
This enduring old tree is the species Sessile Oak, grown in Britain since
the beginning of recorded time, contributing to the rural economy with its
sturdy timbers, from ships to shippens, from gates to guttering, from beams
to bedposts.
A number of experts, Arboriculturalists, agree that the Marton Oak is at
least 1200 years old and probably the oldest tree in England. Its survival
for such an age is considered remarkable because it appears not to have been
cropped, pollarded, or suffered at the hands of man during its long
existence. However, nature itself took a hand, it is thought, perhaps at the
close of the 18th century.
The oak tree is sometimes prone to a process of rotting in the bole at the
top of the tree which descends gradually, eventually triggering a split in
the centre of the trunk. In the case of the Marton Oak, the weighty top
structure would bear down heavily in stormy weather, steadily increasing the
split.
The picture of the Marton Oak, which I tool last March, shows clearly the
effect of this in the present day geometry of the divided trunk. The tree
appears to be not one, but even three trees planted closely together, a fact
disproved because there is only one root system below the ground. In the
last 200 years the girth of the tree has been measured several times and
before the split, the records say that the trunk was a remarkable 58 feet in
diameter. So, having rejuvenated itself, a process not unusual in oak trees,
the great survivor is relaxed and untroubled in its tranquil setting in a
delightful garden, and already well into its second millennium.
Incidentally, the old oak still makes a useful contribution to village life.
Come autumn, the acorns are gathered and sold for 10 pence each to the
benefit of the local parish church of St John, also a venerable old-timer,
founded in 1343.
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