Ancient oak

When Brian called round on Monday and asked if I could do him a favour I couldn't possibly refuse!

Not only was he near enough the first person that we met when we moved to the village just over 14 years ago, but when he described the subject he wanted me to photograph I was fascinated!

As a young boy growing up in the village they had a much freer rein than nowadays to play in all the surrounding fields and woods, and over the years his love of the local trees grew and grew - and this was one of his favourites - apparently with all the coppicing taking place in the wood behind it, it was perfect hunting ground for bows and arrows so of course he visited it regularly!!!

He recently got permission from the current landowners to measure it - and discovered it had a girth of 8.2m! And even though Gloucestershire apparently has the largest number of ancient oaks of any county this one is now one of the biggies!

So looking forward to it now getting the recognition it deserves!

And even though Brian didn't want to be in any pics, I did persuade him it was essential to really show the scale of this magnificent tree! See extras!