Oak-ey dokey

The Woodland Trust has launched the Ancient Tree Hunt, which reminded me that I had intended to write about the ancient oak tree that I can see from my kitchen window.

The Crouch Oak is a local landmark, lending its name to the road on which it stands, and a pub in the centre of the town. As a child I was led to believe that King Henry VIII sheltered from the rain beneath it whilst out hunting as, in those days, Windsor Great Park stretched out this far and Addlestone was just another bit of the King's back garden.

Of course, it wouldn't have been the only tree in this part of the park, and the idea that anyone would really know precisely which tree kept the King dry, or even whether he rode out to here, is somewhat far-fetched. But the story certainly made me look at the tree in awe at the time, and still does, when I very occasionally stop to look at it at all.

I've just 'Googled' it and, after scrolling through the many results for the pub, have found out that the tree was said to have marked the boundary of the park, and local legend has it that Elizabeth I had a picnic beneath its branches. Either my memory or Chinese whispers has distorted the story over the years...

It was apparently long known as Wycliffe's Oak, after the medieval scholar John Wycliffe, who is said to have preached there. Rev. Charles Spurgeon definitely preached there in 1872, resulting in another name for the tree: Spurgeon's Oak.

The tree is though to be almost 1,000 years old. A new oak was planted close by in 2000. It's been called the Millennium Oak, and I like to think that in 1,000 years another oak will be planted - but what will they call that one?