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My recent ‘Odd Socs’ column on the Ancient Tree Forum (CA 436) proved to be unexpectedly topical when, on 18 June, it was announced that Sherwood Forest’s 1,200-year-old Major Oak had died. The expressions of sadness that followed showed that many people loved this tree and considered it an important part of our national heritage.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) – the conservation charity that manages Nottinghamshire’s 450-acre (180ha) Sherwood Forest Country Park – said that ‘huge amounts of human activity’ around the tree, caused by 200 years of visiting tourists, had hardened the soil and made it difficult for rainwater to penetrate to the tree’s root system. Recent heatwaves and droughts had compounded the challenges faced by the Oak.
The tree began to attract visitors in large numbers following the publication in 1790 of a work by the pioneering archaeologist and former soldier Major Hayman Rooke (1723-1806). Between 1776 and 1796, Rooke was a frequent contributor to Archaeologia, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries, reporting on Roman finds and medieval churches in the area around his home at Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire (where he is buried in the chancel of the Church of St Edmund).
His book, called Descriptions and Sketches of Some Remarkable Oaks, in the Park at Welbeck, in the County of Nottingham, was the first to describe and illustrate the oak, as well as other monumental trees, on the Welbeck Abbey estate, the seat of the Dukes of Portland. Rooke estimated, from its 33ft (10m) girth, that the tree ‘could not be much less than a thousand years old’. It came to be known as the Major Tree in his honour, having been called the Cockpen Tree previously – perhaps because the hollow trunk had been used as a pen for fighting cocks.
The Dukes of Portland promoted the Forest as a tourist attraction, building a railway station and hotel at Edwinstowe that was used by 84,000 visitors in the first six months following its opening in 1896. Guidebooks gave pride of place to the tree, claiming that its hollow trunk had been used as a hiding place by Robin Hood. This association with the Sherwood Forest outlaw built on the huge popularity of Howard Pyle’s book for children, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which was published in 1883. It was the first work to draw the various Robin Hood legends and ballads into a coherent set of stories, and it greatly influenced subsequent TV and film versions of the Robin Hood story (readers of the same age as Sherds probably know by heart the words to the theme tune of the British television series starring Richard Greene, originally broadcast between 1955 and 1959 but frequently repeated throughout the 1960s).
During the First and Second World Wars, the forest was used for military training. After it was returned to civilian use in 1969, visiting the oak, climbing through its branches, and pretending to be Robin Hood became a fondly remembered part of many a Nottinghamshire childhood, whether as part of a school visit or a family outing. In 1972, however, the public were excluded from approaching the Oak by a fence, the earth beneath the tree was tilled, and bark chips were placed down to encourage groundwater to reach the roots.
Chloe Ryder, RSPB Sherwood Forest Estates Operations Manager, told the BBC that staff had done everything they could to keep the tree alive, and said that it would now be left to decay naturally over several decades, providing a home to the many species that depend on dead wood for food, nesting, and breeding – from fungi to bats, birds, and beetles.
The war on trees
Sherds has reported in the past on battles between tree-lovers and local authorities over the felling of much-loved street trees (see CA 340, 342, and 352). Every town- or city-dwelling reader of this column will probably know of an example of a street tree being cut down in its prime, executed for the crime of shedding leaves that require sweeping up in autumn, and often described (falsely) as ‘diseased’. Rarely are they replaced but, if they are, the tree favoured by urban planners is the fastigiate pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’). This well-behaved columnar tree has fewer leaves and its smaller root system is less prone to encroaching on paving, buried infrastructure, and building foundations. They do not, however, provide the essential shade that Continental cities, such as Madrid, depend on in summer for keeping streets cool.
Archaeologists have found themselves on both sides in the battles for and against mature trees. When the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) sought permission to remove two 180-year-old plane trees growing in a garden adjacent to the Society’s library and offices in London’s Doughty Mews, they found themselves in dispute with their neighbours. The EES claimed the trees threatened to undermine the back wall of their building, a Victorian coach house that they have occupied since 1968.
Local residents including Gillian Darley (the architectural historian and author of biographies of Sir John Soane, John Evelyn, and Octavia Hill) argued that felling would ‘alter a deeply cherished local landscape whose magnificent and robustly healthy trees, with their impressive scale and changing seasonal foliage, bring huge pleasure all year round’. The engineers they consulted said that felling the trees would destabilise several nearby properties, including the premises of the EES. They pointed out that the EES was planning a £2 million redevelopment of its buildings and that they should simply move the threatened back wall as part of this and leave the trees alone.
Following heated debate, the council granted permission for the trees to be felled. Would it have made a difference if trees benefited from being listed like historic buildings, as many have advocated? The sad truth is, probably not. Notable trees and those that add to the character of a conservation area can, in theory, already be protected through a Tree Preservation Order (TPO), which means that formal permission must be obtained for felling and even to carry out maintenance work. Shockingly, councils in England alone gave permission for the felling of 1,403 TPO-protected trees between 2019 and 2024. Commenting on the figures, the London Tree Officers Association (LTOA) told the BBC that councils were afraid of being held liable for compensation if they refuse permission to fell a tree that is later blamed for causing subsidence.
Occasionally, though, the tree wins. In January of this year, Chichester District Council refused permission to fell an oak that was protected as a ‘significant feature of particular visual importance’ in the local landscape. An appeal against this decision claimed the tree posed a health risk to a boy who lived nearby and who was allergic to oak pollen and mildew. In June, the planning inspector upheld the decision not to fell on the grounds that removing the tree would not reduce exposure to mildew or other allergens, given the presence of other oaks nearby, and that the reasons presented for its removal did not ‘meet the threshold required to override the public benefit of retaining a protected tree in good health and structural condition’.
Sheffield’s change of heart
Meanwhile, in Sheffield – where the city authorities have been criticised in recent years both for their ruthless felling of street trees and for their neglect of heritage buildings from the city’s heyday as a steel town and centre of the edge-tool industry – there has been a welcome change of policy. The campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage has applauded Sheffield for introducing the radical principle of giving priority to the reuse of the city’s historic buildings over their demolition. ‘This is a pioneering move’, said SAVE, making Sheffield ‘one of the first places outside of London to make this landmark policy change’. The Royal Institute of British Architects estimates that 50,000 buildings are demolished each year across the UK, and that many of these are much loved by local communities, hold a remarkable history, and have the potential to be reused.
A ‘reuse first’ approach to existing buildings is a key element in Sheffield’s new draft local plan, which will guide development until 2039. SAVE pointed out that dereliction and vacancy is still a significant problem in Sheffield, however, with nine historic buildings on their Buildings at Risk register, not including the magnificent Central Library and Graves Gallery building, which is in need of repairs estimated to cost £30 million.
