Will’s World: Top trunks, hot tents and branching out
© Richard Stanton I’d go a long way to see a good old oak tree, and often have. But we’re also blessed with a lot of extraordinary examples in this part of the world, too.
Just a short distance from here is the atmospheric Oak at the Gate of the Dead, or Derwen Adwy’r Meirwon to use its correct name.
Located near Offa’s Dyke, it’s estimated to be over 1,000 years old and was supposedly named after the Battle of Crogen that took place around it in 1165, when the Welsh, under Owain Gwynedd, defeated the English army of King Henry II.
See also: How farmers can maximise income from growing trees
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How incredible to think that the tree was there when this momentous and bloody event happened.
In 2013, the Pontfadog Oak that had overlooked the Ceiriog Valley for a staggering 1,200 years was finally and tragically felled by a storm.
It was hard to even comprehend its age and history, as it was seeded well before England even existed as a concept.
Many stories and myths surrounded it, including that a missing bull once spent two days inside the huge hollow trunk sometime in the late 1800s.
What I loved most about it was that it was just there, as part of the community, like a respected village elder. Children played in it, livestock sheltered under it, and generations of people carved their initials on it.
What scenes it must have witnessed over the years.
Family tree
Gran’s Oak by day © Will Evans
On the farm here I have a favourite oak tree as well. It was my grandmother’s favourite too, so I refer to it as Gran’s Oak, and hold my breath every time there’s bad weather.
It has an incredible shape to it, and I’d estimate it to be about 600 years old. It’s in the middle of a field where once two ancient footpaths crossed.
When I’m there I like to imagine travellers throughout the centuries sheltering from bad weather under its boughs. I don’t know why, but I find it comforting somehow. It’s the continuance, I suppose.
Anyway, you’ll have gathered by now that I’m a bit of a nerd about this stuff, so it was with a degree of excitement that I headed off to the Agroforestry Show down in Swindon a few weeks ago.
It was during that late hot weather we had, so I went equipped with a bottle of water, sun hat and factor 50 sunscreen.
Us Welsh don’t thrive in the heat, and so it proved when the temperature in one of the marquees reached levels akin to the surface of the sun.
I rapidly became the sweatiest man on site and had to make a trip to the first aid tent to request some ibuprofen to cure my headache. The opposite of cool, in both senses of the word.
Gran’s Oak at sunset © Will Evans
From little acorns…
Despite my discomfort (and the unseasonably hot weather did rather handily emphasise one of the obvious points that advocates for trees on farms often talk about – increased need for shade and shelter), I had a brilliant day.
I learned a lot, talked to many friendly and open-minded people about trees and farming, and vowed to go again next year as a result.
As a lowly tenant farmer, I’m not yet convinced that I can make enough money out of trees to make any kind of planting at scale worthwhile, and I worry about where well-meaning but clumsy government policy might be taking us all in this regard.
I can certainly see the practical and environmental benefits of having more on the farm, so perhaps I just need to look a little bit harder to see the wood from the trees.