Ancient oaks west of Holly Lodge, Richmond Park

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 7 Mar 2011

An alignment of ancient oaks - among the oldest trees in the Park - stretches WNW from Holly Lodge, with what appears to be an old trackway running beside it. It has been suggested that this marks an old field boundary, dating from before the enclosure of the Park in the 1630's. We shall probably never know the age of these old pollards - they are all hollow, so even if we could count the rings there would be no sure way of estimating what had been lost from the centre. On the other hand, there are plenty of trees in the Park whose age is known with reasonable accuracy. The oak on the right of the picture - relatively youthful - is probably one of many planted in the 1870's. My guess - for what it's worth - is that the old pollards in this shot are at least 700 years old. In any case, there is little doubt that they were already mature trees at the time the Park was created - in 1637. Richmond Park is a National Nature Reserve.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0