The Major Oak is a large English oak (''Quercus robur'') near the village of Edwinstowe in the midst of

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is the remnants of an ancient royal forest, Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, within the East Midlands region in England. It has association with the legend of Robin Hood. The forest was proclaimed by William the Conqueror and ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, England. According to local

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, it was

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

's shelter where he and his

Merry Men The Merry Men are the group of Outlaw (stock character), outlaws who follow Robin Hood in English literature and folklore. The members of the group appear both collectively and individually in the earliest ballads about Robin Hood and remain ...

slept. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a

girth Girth may refer to: Mathematics * Girth (functional analysis), the length of the shortest centrally symmetric simple closed curve on the unit sphere of a Banach space * Girth (geometry), the perimeter of a parallel projection of a shape * Girth ...

of 33 feet (10 metres), a canopy of 92 feet (28 metres), and is about 800–1,000 years old. The Major Oak sits within a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Etymology

Major Hayman Rooke, a soldier and antiquarian, describes the Major Oak in his book ''Description or Sketches of Remarkable Oakes in Welbeck Park in 1790'' as "I think no one can behold this majestic ruin without pronouncing it to be of very from it antiquity, and might venture to say, that it cannot be much less than a thousand years old." It is believed that the Major Oak took the name of Major Hayman Rooke. The Major Oak used to be named the Cockpen Tree, after the

cockfighting Cockfighting is a blood sport involving domesticated roosters as the combatants. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term ...

that once took place beneath it.

History

The Major Oak was identified by Major Hayman Rooke in 1790. Support chains were first fitted to the tree in 1908, and its massive limbs have been partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding since the 1970s. In 1974, fences were installed around the tree to protect it from root damage, since the number of visitors to the tree was compacting the soil around it. The formation sign of the 46th Infantry Division of the British Army in the Second World War was the Major Oak. Among the units of the division were battalions of the Sherwood Foresters regiment. In a 2002 survey, it was voted "Britain's favourite tree". Also in 2002, a person illegally attempted to sell

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

s claimed to be from the Major Oak on an internet-based auction website. In 2003, in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

was started of 260 saplings grown from acorns of the Major Oak. The purpose was to provide publicity for an internet-based study of the Major Oak, its history, photographic record, variation in size and leafing of the saplings, comparison of their

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

, and an eventual public amenity. The Major Oak was featured on the 2005 television programme ''

Seven Natural Wonders ''Seven Natural Wonders'' is a television series that was broadcast on BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is t ...

'' as one of the wonders of the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

.Seven Man Made Wonders,Midlands - Sherwood Forest and the Major Oak”, BBC Homepage, 28 October 2014, Archived, retrieved on 3 April 2025 In 2014, it was voted ' England's Tree of the Year' by a public poll by the Woodland Trust, receiving 18% of the votes. The threat to the Major Oak from

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure inje ...

is the subject of a song by English musician Beans on Toast on his 2017 album ''Cushty''. In July 2020 the tree was reported as vandalised, with a three-foot section of bark fallen off.

The shape of the Major Oak

It is unclear to whether the Major Oak is one tree or several tree saplings that have been fused together, hence this may give reason to its shape. This enormous tree is commonly thought to be the UK's second-largest oak tree, only truly surpassed by the Majesty Oak in Fredville Park, in the village of

Nonington Nonington () (variously, Nonnington, Nunyngton, Nonnyngton and Nunnington), is a civil parish and village in east Kent, halfway between the historic city of Canterbury and the English Channel, channel port town of Dover. The civil parish includes ...

, near Dover, Kent.{{cite web, url=https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/gbr/england/kent/960_fredvillepark/1720/, title=Pedunculate Oak 'Majesty' in Fredville Park, Nonington, England, United Kingdom, publisher=Monumental trees, accessdate=2023-10-06

Gallery

File:Book Illustration of The Major Oak.jpg, Book illustration of the Major Oak in 1879 Image:Major Oak (9492).jpg, The Major Oak with the support system in place Image:Major Oak in Sherwood Forest in 2006.jpg, The Major Oak in December 2006 File:The Major Oak, January 2013 - geograph.org.uk - 3290581.jpg, The Major Oak, 2013

References

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External links