How old are the Oaks?

MEASURING THE OLD OAKS

On our meet on 26th October we made a start on measuring the girth of the old oaks along the river in order to calculate their approximate age.

SEE

 Hills Farm Wildlife Conservation 

'Oaks in October'  record dated 28th October for all trees measured so far.

This oak is about 175 years old, middle aged, certainly not the

oldest on the riverside.

Detail of the trunk of an older oak.

We aim to measure all the old oaks eventually - their ages vary a lot, by hundreds of years, indicating an ancient woodland origin rather than a deliberate planting by a land owner to mark a boundary. During woodland and forest clearance in order to create space for agricultural use, trees were always left on the edges of the clearings to form natural boundaries, as part of hedgerows.