Demise of the Hogsmill Riverside Oak. I often used to just stand and ponder life by this large oak tree. Or just touch the ancient bark. So it was sad to discover it had finally fallen when I got home from my travels. The tree split and tumbled over in early October and it turned out to be hollow in the middle. It has been estimated to be between 300 and 600 years old. I like to believe it is 600 old. That would have been 1422 and the War of the Roses. And when it was growing, Henry VIII hunted in the area and built Nonsuch Palace not that far away to be 'no such place' and be better than the likes of Hampton Court, Whitehall Palace and Greenwich Palace. If the acorn had come from a parent tree that was also 600 years old, it would have been the 9th century with King Alfred the Great about to come to power. And Ewell is the saxon for well or spring (Hogsmill springs in Ewell). And if the acorn of that tree had come from another tree that was 600 years old, it would have been around 222AD and the height of the Roman empire in Britain. And Stane Street, the Roman road from London to Chichester, first headed the spring of the Hogsmill river nearby. So I could imagine Roman soldiers resting under the shade of oak trees by the stream! #hogsmill #hogsmillriverside #hogsmillopenspace #hogsmillnaturereserve #ewell #oak #oaktree #ancientoak #stanestreet #ewellspring #nonsuchpalace (at Hogsmill Riverside) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnErb53DxVB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
