| Capon Oak Tree | |
|---|---|
 The Capon Tree in 2009 | |
 | |
| Species | Sessile Oak [1] ( Quercus petraea ) |
| Location | Jedforest, Scottish Borders |
| Girth | ~10 metres |
The Capon Oak Tree is one of the last surviving trees of the ancient Scottish Jedforest. It is close to the A68 and Jed Water, a small river which has cut a course below soft sandstone cliffs. The Sessile Oak tree was said to be in the top fifty trees in the UK in 2002 and in the top 10 in 2024.
It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Jedburgh, Scotland, west of the A68. The Capon Tree is held together with concrete, bricks and timber beams supporting its trunk and branches due to a massive split down the middle of the trunk. [2] The tree's trunk is about ten metres in diameter [3] and it continued to grow in 2022. [4] The tree is estimated to be about 1,000 years old and it may have survived being felled because of its distorted shape making its wood useless for making ships. In 2002 grants were given to enable work to extend its life. It is an important icon and for 75 years the tree is visited annually during the annual Jethart Callant's Festival where the Callant is decorated with a sprig from the Capon tree. [4] The Capon Tree was one of the 50 Great British Trees selected by The Tree Council in 2002 the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee [5] and in 2024 it was in the short list for "Tree of the Year". [6]
Trees are being replanted in the Borders to establish a renewal of the ancient 'Caledon Wood,' or great northern forest, which included Ettrick Forest and Jedforest. [7]
Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a stump, which in many species encourages new shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest or grove that has been subject to coppicing is called a copse or coppice, in which young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. The resulting living stumps are called stools. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced trees are harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots. Daisugi, is a similar Japanese technique.
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972.
Quercus robur, the pedunculate oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soils of near neutral acidity in the lowlands and is notable for its value to natural ecosystems, supporting a very wide diversity of herbivorous insects and other pests, predators and pathogens.
Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period. It can survive for as long as two centuries. Typically, once it reaches 25 years old, its thick bark can be harvested for cork every 9 to 12 years without causing harm to the tree.
The A68 is a major road in the United Kingdom, running from Darlington in England to the A720 in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It crosses the Anglo-Scottish border at Carter Bar and is the only road to do so for some distance either way; the next major crossings are the A697 from Coldstream to Cornhill-on-Tweed in the east, and the A7 near Canonbie to the west.
Jedburgh is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire.
The Major Oak is a large English oak near the village of Edwinstowe in the midst of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England. According to local folklore, it was Robin Hood's shelter where he and his merry men slept. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a girth of 33 feet, a canopy of 92 feet, and is about 800–1,000 years old. In 2014, it was voted 'England's Tree of the Year' by a public poll by the Woodland Trust, receiving 18% of the votes. Its name originates from Major Hayman Rooke's description of it in 1790.
In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 is likely to have developed naturally.
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres.
Jedforest is an historic forest in the Scottish Borders, that has been heavily wooded in the past. It is close to Jed Water and the town of Jedburgh, from which it takes its name.
The Great North Wood was a natural oak woodland that started three miles (4.8 km) south-east of central London and scaled the Norwood Ridge. At its full extent, the wood's boundaries stretched almost as far as Croydon and as far north as Camberwell. It had occasional landownings as large clearings, well-established by the Middle Ages such as the hamlets of Penge and Dulwich.
Bowthorpe Oak in Manthorpe near Bourne, Lincolnshire, is a gigantic and ancient pedunculate oak in England. The tree has a circumference of about 44 feet and has a hollow trunk, making it the second-widest individual tree in the UK, only surpassed by the significantly older and much less-intact Marton Oak in Cheshire. It is commonly thought to be the UK's oldest oak tree on account of its size, although it is surpassed in age by the 1,200-year old Marton Oak, and the 1,300-1,500 year old King Offa's Oak at Windsor.
Bedford Purlieus is a 211-hectare (520-acre) ancient woodland in Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. It is a national nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest owned and managed by the Forestry Commission. In Thornhaugh civil parish, 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Stamford and 14 km (8.7 mi) west of Peterborough, the wood is within the Peterborough unitary authority area of Cambridgeshire, and borders Northamptonshire. In Roman times it was an iron smelting centre, during the medieval period it was in the Royal Forest of Rockingham, and later it became part of the estates of the Duke of Bedford. Bedford Purlieus appears to have been continuously wooded at least from Roman times, and probably since the ice receded. The woodland may have the richest range of vascular plants of any English lowland wood. It acquired particular significance in the 1970s as an early subject for the historical approach to ecology and woodland management.
The United Kingdom, being in the British Isles, is ideal for tree growth, thanks to its mild winters, plentiful rainfall, fertile soil and hill-sheltered topography. In the absence of people, much of Great Britain would be covered with mature oaks as well as savannah-type of plains, except for Scotland. Although conditions for forestry are good, trees face threats from fungi, parasites and pests. Nowadays, about 13% of Britain's land surface is wooded. European countries average 39%, but this varies widely from 1% (Malta) to 66% (Finland). As of 2021, government plans call for 30,000 hectares to be reforested each year. Efforts to reach these targets have attracted criticism for planting non-native trees, or trees that are out of place for their surroundings, leading to ecological changes.
Bagger Wood is a 67.56 acres (27.34 ha) woodland in the English county of South Yorkshire, near to the village of Hood Green, about 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Barnsley. The wood forms part of the South Yorkshire Forest and is within an Area of Great Landscape Value. It is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust.
The Queen Elizabeth Oak is a large sessile oak tree in Cowdray Park near the village of Lodsworth in the Western Weald, West Sussex, England. It lies within the South Downs National Park. It has a girth of 12.5–12.8 metres (41–42 ft), and is about 800–1,000 years old. According to this estimate it began to grow in the 11th or 12th century AD. In June 2002, The Tree Council designated the Queen Elizabeth Oak, one of fifty Great British Trees, in recognition of its place in the national heritage. According to the Woodland Trust, the tree is the third largest sessile oak tree to be recorded in the United Kingdom after the Pontfadog Oak in Wales and the Marton Oak in Cheshire, although this tree is now fragmented.
Wyndham's Oak is an historic pedunculate oak tree in Silton, Dorset, England. It was one of a number of oaks that historically marked the boundary of between Selwood Forest and Gillingham Forest, a medieval hunting ground.
The Bruce Tree was an oak tree that stood on the grounds of Strathleven House in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is reputed to have been planted by Robert the Bruce and was between 700 and 1,000 years old when it fell from an arson attack in May 2004. The timber from the tree was saved and used to form a replica of the Bruce's throne.
The Newland Oak was a veteran oak tree in Newland, Gloucestershire in England. Originally part of the ancient woodland of the Forest of Dean, it survived clearances that created the settlement of Newland and was afterwards pollarded for timber. Its large size was often remarked upon through the years and it was considered a rival to the Cowthorpe Oak as the largest oak tree in Great Britain. Much of the tree fell during heavy snow in 1955 but a single branch of the tree survived until 1970 when it was killed during an arson attack. A replacement tree grown from one of the Newland Oak's acorns had been planted in 1964.
