Wednesday 5 August 2009

Diana And Myself Are Great Fans Of A Series Called The Tudors,

so it was with some surprise that I found this story of how trees from that time are still alive, Henry VIII hunted in the royal hunting forest of Savernake, near Marlborough in Wiltshire, in the 1530's it is here that he met the warden Sir John Seymour's daughter, Jane and ultimately married her, it is one of England's most important woodlands, being more than 1,000 years old and covering 4,500 acres, and it is a lot older than the time of the Tudors, it is referred to in a Saxon Charter from King Athelstan in 934AD, being called 'Safernoc'. since Norman times it has passed down from father to son in an unbroken line for 31 generations, the current hereditary warden is the Earl of Cardigan, yes it was the 7th. Earl that led the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, the tree in the picture is the big Belly Oak, according to legend, the Devil appears to anyone who dances naked, 12 times anti-clockwise around this giant tree, I wonder where that legend comes from? 'A handful of Savernake's trees are well over a thousand years old and have been here longer than some of Britain's oldest buildings,' said Ben Lennon, planning and environment manager for the Forestry Commission, if only trees could talk, what tales they could tell.

2 comments:

Jil Wrinkle said...

I just recently finished reading "The Forest" by Edward Rutherfurd, which is a (semi-fictional) history of The New Forest, starting in 1099 with the death of Rufus, up to the present day. Good book, and I am very sure you would enjoy it immensely.

PattayaStan said...

Dear Jil, I have read and have a copy of it, I will do a piece on the blog about the book, it was as you say an interesting read, it has been to the UK and back a couple of times as I read it on the flights, best regards, Stan and Diana.