Oaks in October

We started to get an idea of the age of the riverside oaks on our latest meet on 26th October 2014.

Measuring the girth of the main trunks of each oak was not as easy as it may seem as most of the trees grow out of the river banks. Five of the oaks were successfully measured without anyone falling into the river however. It was a very dark morning so these photos were taken today, Tuesday 28th when the light was far better. Using the Woodland Trust table as a guide, the age of each tree was estimated.

This oak was probably just a sapling in 1783,
during the reign of George III

(The date of the first manned hot-air balloon flight in Paris)

This oak started growing around the year 1724,
during the reign of George 1st
(Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison 1726)

A fine oak, this was a sapling around 1839,
during the early years of  Queen Victoria's reign 

(The year when John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph)

This oak started growing not long after the one above, around 1869,
during the reign of Queen Victoria

(The year ballbearings were invented and the Suez canal opened)

The oldest oak measured so far was a sapling in around 1698,

during the reign of William and Mary 

(The year the Eddystone Lighthouse was first lit)

More to measure, so this may not be the oldest!