Trees are dual organisms and it’s possible that this relationship goes back to the beginning of land plants.
—Professor Oliver Rackham
One of the magic moments in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony was the point when the giant oak tree standing on top of a grassy knoll soared high into the air. As its long roots dangled, a stream of workers emerged from the gaping hole it left behind and set about creating the belching chimneys of the industrial revolution that transformed the pastoral economy of Britain into the workshop of the world.
Oaks are symbolic of old England, just as they are of France and Germany in ages past. Our language is rich in references to their strength and endurance, longevity and steadfastness, summed up by the saying, ‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’. Oaks are the most royal of trees. In 1533 Queen Elizabeth I is reported to have been reading a book under an oak tree in Hatfield Park when a messenger arrived with the news that her sister Mary had died and she was now Queen. In 1651 King Charles II is said to have sheltered in the branches of an oak as he fled from the final battle of the Civil War.
The slow-growing oak can live for many centuries – perhaps as much as 1,200 years in the case of the famous oak of Pontfadog in north Wales. On the edge of Hayley Wood on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire is an oak tree dating back 400 years to the beginning of the Stuart age, a time of change and tumult that saw powerful political and religious factions pitted against each other.
This year Hayley Wood, one of the most important habitats for oxlips (a member of the Primula genus) in the country, celebrates its 50th year as woodland owned by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The year 2012 also marks the 48th anniversary of the connection between Hayley Wood and the Cambridge University ecologist and landscape historian, Professor Oliver Rackham.
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Image: Professor Oliver Rackham leads a visit to Hayley Wood, August 2012
Credit: Simon Crowhurst
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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