About ten miles from the Scottish Border, just outside the historic town of Jedburgh, is the Capon Tree. A hollow English Oak, that is estimated to be over 1,000 years old, it is one of the last survivors of the ancient Jed Forest, which used to cover a huge expanse of the Scottish borders.
Once a heavily wooded island, over the centuries Britain has steadily been cleared of trees, until now only 13% of Britain’s land is wooded. Lots of things have contributed to this, clearance for farming over the centuries, two World Wars had a heavy impact, the changes in climate bring violent storms, and of course fungal diseases imported on wood from abroad. The most well-known of these was Dutch Elm’s Disease, introduced through imported wood in the late 1960’s, it has killed off over 25 million mature elms in Britain, and now most elms only grow as part of hedgerows, poor shades of their once mighty ancestors.
One of the oldest trees in Britain is the Fortingall Yew, in Perthshire, which is estimated to be between 2,000 and 3,000 years old.
When are trees not a wood?
Not that long ago I bought a book called Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell, the book is filled with short chapters about different cultures words for snow. This made me think about John Lewis-Stempel’s book The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood, where he talks about the different collective nouns for trees. Many creatures and plants have a collective noun associated with them, we all know the common ones, such as a murder of crows or a parliament of owls, but trees have a lot.
Here are just a few that are familiar:
Avenue: That long line of trees that can often be seen along a roadside, or along the driveway of a stately home. Two avenues I know about in the British Isles are the Beech Drive near Kingston Lacy in Dorset, and the Dark Hedges in Ireland, famous for its part in Game of Thrones.
Hanger: Trees that are grouped on a hillside, places often took their names from local landmarks and there are many Hanger Farms or Hanger woods. Selborne Hill in Hampshire is a good example of beech hanger woodlands.
Orchard: A group of trees grown and managed for their fruit or nuts. Apple orchards are common across Britain, and many were introduced by the Roman’s, who planted several of their own species of fruit trees.
Withy: Not widely used or that familiar, but I had to add in a withy due to its appearance in one of my favourite books. A withy is a group of willows, often found in damp or boggy areas. In Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, the hobbits become lost in the Old Forest and follow a river known as the Withywindle, which ends in a dangerous encounter with Old Man Willow.
The myth and folklore around trees
The longer things exist in the world the more mystery they gather around them, trees have been here for a very long time. They were some of the first things to grow as the ice age began to end, with birch, spruce and pine slowly colonizing Northern Europe when the ice retreated.
As the centuries went on humanity built on the mystery and power of trees, and even today we choose to touch wood to ward off bad luck, a practise that may have come from the ancient celts, who believed that touching trees would call on the gods or spirits that lived within them. Some trees are woven more tightly into folk tales than others, for example rowan was planted for many years outside people’s front doors in Scotland and Ireland, to ward off evil spirits.
Here are a few other trees that have a close association with myth and magic:
Oak: In mythology the oak was closely associated with the gods, including Jupiter, Zeus, and Thor. The ancient Druids of Britain also held it as sacred, frequently conducting their rites and worship within oak groves.
Hazel: Hazel is often associated with wisdom and magic, the rods of coppiced hazel were often used to make staffs or hazel wands, they were also used as water-diviners.
Hawthorn: The Hawthorn is closely associated with many legends and folk tales. Near Glastonbury Abbey grows a variety of common hawthorn known as the Glastonbury Thorn, legend says the first Glastonbury Thorn grew from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea after he thrust it into the ground on Wearyall Hill.
The importance of trees to nature
Trees have an incredible biodiversity, supporting hundreds of life forms, the oak alone supports around 500 different species of insect, and is the most bio-diverse species of tree in Britain. It also provides a food source for many larger mammals, such as squirrels and deer, who feed on its acorns.
The Hazel tree has its own mammal named after it, the hazel dormouse, which likes to fatten up on hazelnuts in preparation for winter. Over the centuries the hazel has also been important to human’s and has a long history of forestry management through coppicing, when the stem of the tree is cut down to its base to allow new shoots to grow. This practice is thought to have been around for over 4,000 years.
Perhaps overlooked sometimes on riverbanks and streams, the alder tree has an important role in securing banking and preventing erosion, with its system of deep roots. It also provides a home for many mosses and lichen, due to the damp conditions where it prefers to grow. Otters are also known to make dens among the roots of the alder tree.
Beloved by people everywhere for its gin flavouring berries, the Juniper tree is also important to many birds, the song thrush, firecrest and goldfinch all use it for nesting, and in Scotland it provides cover for black grouse. Its berries are eaten as a food by birds like the ring ouzel, the song thrush, and the fieldfare.
So, the next time when you sit down with a gin and tonic, perhaps on a oak wood garden bench, have a think about where it all came from, and consider the number of animals and plants that rely on nature’s giants.
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