‘The tree is Britain, after all,” the historian Simon Schama wrote. More than ash or elm, the oak symbolises this country. It is our tallest, noblest, most remarkable native tree. Spreading its boughs across the centuries, it was used by the druids as a canopy for ceremonies and by Robin Hood for shelter. Charles II hid in the Boscobel oak, Henry VIII’s Mary Rose was built almost entirely of oak. The wood was the navy’s secret weapon — Nelson’s sailors sang Heart of Oak on the way to Trafalgar.
The country is built on the native Quercus robur, from the beams of great cathedrals to panelling in the House of Commons. Our books were written with ink made from oak galls. There was once a
