Village Cage

In the centre of Lingfield village in West Sussex is an amazing old oak tree thought to be some 400 years old. You can walk right through the centre of it, and some of the upper branches are kept aloft by heavy-duty steel supports.

Alongside the tree is the Village Cage and St Peter's Cross. The latter, dating from 1473, originally marked the boundary between two manors. The Cage was added later, in 1773. It was used as a lock-up gaol until 1882, latterly to hold poachers.

The old building remains in a remarkable state of preservation, one of the few such structures to survive until the modern day. But for me the tree is the star, still in an apparently very healthy state of leafiness, and towering over Lingfield village pond.