Public - partial access (e.g. next to footpath or road)
Surroundings:
River / canal bank, Village green
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Lots of historical info on this tree: http://www.weyriver.co.uk/theriver/wey_south_C.htm
Here is the relevant extract: “I am not judge enough of timber to say anything about the quantity in the whole tree, but my son stepped the ground, and as neatly as we could judge, the diameter of the extent of the branches was upwards of ninety feet, which would make a circumference of about three hundred feet. The tree is in full growth at this moment. There is a little hole in one of the limbs; but with that exception, there appears not the smallest sign of decay. The tree had made great shoots in all parts of it this last summer and spring; and there are no appearances of white upon the trunk, such as are regarded as the symptoms of full growth. There are many sorts of oak in England; two very distinct; one with a pale leaf, and one with a dark leaf: this is of the pale leaf. The tree stands upon Tilford Green, the soil of which is a light loam with a hard sand stone a good way beneath, and, probably, day beneath that. The spot where the tree stands is about a hundred and twenty feet from the edge of a little river, and the ground on which it stands may be about ten feet higher than the bed of that river.” William Cobbett 1822
The ancient oak tree (GR: SU873435), which is thought to date back to well before 17th century (although popular legend would claim an age of 1,000 years), is unhappily also nearing the end of its life and rests wearily near to the pub cordoned off by a protective fence. The tree has inspired fierce loyalty many times over through its long life, the most notable of which was to trigger a mass disobedience against the all-powerful Bishop of Winchester who as Lord of the Manor owned the land on which the tree stood at the time. The Bishop had ordered his foresters to fell the tree, but their axes were prevented from penetrating the bark by hundreds of nails the villagers had hammered in to deflect their blows. Local legend also holds that Charles II once hid in it, that a Waverley monk hanged himself from it and that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, once preached beneath it. The green was eventually given to the community by the Manor of Farnham in 1835.
Old photo at http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/surrey/tilford/photos/tilford_53588.htm
This tree is included in the Ancient Tree Hunt register of Named Trees (with various alternative names)
Andrew OakLay
Lots of historical info on this tree: http://www.weyriver.co.uk/theriver/wey_south_C.htm Here is the relevant extract: “I am not judge enough of timber to say anything about the quantity in the whole tree, but my son stepped the ground, and as neatly as we could judge, the diameter of the extent of the branches was upwards of ninety feet, which would make a circumference of about three hundred feet. The tree is in full growth at this moment. There is a little hole in one of the limbs; but with that exception, there appears not the smallest sign of decay. The tree had made great shoots in all parts of it this last summer and spring; and there are no appearances of white upon the trunk, such as are regarded as the symptoms of full growth. There are many sorts of oak in England; two very distinct; one with a pale leaf, and one with a dark leaf: this is of the pale leaf. The tree stands upon Tilford Green, the soil of which is a light loam with a hard sand stone a good way beneath, and, probably, day beneath that. The spot where the tree stands is about a hundred and twenty feet from the edge of a little river, and the ground on which it stands may be about ten feet higher than the bed of that river.” William Cobbett 1822 The ancient oak tree (GR: SU873435), which is thought to date back to well before 17th century (although popular legend would claim an age of 1,000 years), is unhappily also nearing the end of its life and rests wearily near to the pub cordoned off by a protective fence. The tree has inspired fierce loyalty many times over through its long life, the most notable of which was to trigger a mass disobedience against the all-powerful Bishop of Winchester who as Lord of the Manor owned the land on which the tree stood at the time. The Bishop had ordered his foresters to fell the tree, but their axes were prevented from penetrating the bark by hundreds of nails the villagers had hammered in to deflect their blows. Local legend also holds that Charles II once hid in it, that a Waverley monk hanged himself from it and that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, once preached beneath it. The green was eventually given to the community by the Manor of Farnham in 1835.
Old photo at http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/surrey/tilford/photos/tilford_53588.htm
This tree is included in the Ancient Tree Hunt register of Named Trees (with various alternative names) Andrew OakLay