King of the Forests

[RichardB]

" The fall, at this period, of two venerable oaks," says Mr

Hunter, " must have been viewed with sensations of more than ordinary

regret. Their wonderful magnitude made them the pride of the

forest; and their age, having outlasted many generations and some

races of the chiefs whose estate they had adorned, themselves still

flourishing and vigorous, commanded for them a respect not unallied

to religious feeling.

They stood on different parts of the domain:

the one on the conduit plain within Sheffield Park. Evelyn was informed

that this oak stretched its arms on all sides, to the distance of

forty-five feet or more from the trunk; and was therefore capable of

affording shelter to above two hundred horsemen.

The other stood, as Evelyn informs us, at the upper end of Riveling, perhaps on the

very spot where the towers of the Saxon "Waltheof had appeared

before they felt the power of an unpitying conqueror. Either for it

gigantic appearance, or owing to some tradition respecting it, not

now to be recovered, it had acquired the name of ' the lord's oak.'

Its bole was twelve yards in girth, exceeding the famous Greendale

oak, in Welbeck park, by three feet: and when it was cut down its

top or brandies yielded not less than twenty-one cords of wood.

This king of the forests was felled in 1690."

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Extract : Complete History of the County of York 1831

[RichardB]

1673.

The neighbourhood of Sheffield celebrated for its

growth of oaks.

" I am informed by a person of credit, that an oak in Sheffield park, called the Lady's

oak, when felled, contained forty-two tons of timber, which had arms which held at least four

feet square, for ten yards in length; the body six feet of clear timber; thus, in the same park, one

might have chosen above a thousand trees worth above six thousand pounds; another thousand worth

four thousand pounds, et sic de ceeteris.

To this Mr. Hatton replies, that it might possibly be meant of the lord's oak already mentioned to have grown

at Rivelin, for now Rivelin itself is totally destitute of that issue she once might have gloried in of

oaks; and as to the computation of 1000 trees worth £6000, it is believed there were a 1000 much

above that value, since, in what is now enclosed, it is evident, touching a hundred worth a thousand

pounds."

— Evelyn's Sylva.

[Guest tsavo]

Its bole was twelve yards in girth, exceeding the famous Greendale

oak, in Welbeck park, by three feet: and when it was cut down its

top or brandies yielded not less than twenty-one cords of wood.

This king of the forests was felled in 1690."

If, like me, you have no idea how much wood is a "cord" this site will help.

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/cord.htm