The Major Oak, ca. 1200 – 2026

One of Britain’s most famous trees, the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, has died due to excessively hot and dry summers (and I’m guessing even oaks don’t live forever). The oak has been the subject of many paintings (including the 1844 one below, by Henry Dawson). It was rumored to be a hideout for (the probably mythical) Robin Hood; suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst hid from the law in it, and it was the symbol for the 46th Infantry Division during WWII. Since the 1970s, it had been shored up by scaffolding and protected by a fence. Historian Caroline Swan wrote that “From the sacred oak groves of pre-Roman Britons and the oak wands used by Druids to the oak tree that sheltered the future King Charles II as he escaped from the forces of Oliver Cromwell and the countless oaks used to construct England’s proud navies and merchant ships, this tree – perhaps more than any other – is seen as the national tree of England.”