Photographing Trees at Fredville Park in Nonington, near Dover

Photographing Trees at Fredville Park in Nonington, near Dover, home of the oldest Oak Tree in England, even older than that at Sherwood Forrest

The tree i thought was the Majesty, maiden oak was not, so will have to return to find this at a later date.

Description taken from www.parksandgardens.org

There is a 2 acre walled garden that could date from the 18th century with 2-3 metre high brick walls, now in an abandoned state and used for pheasant rearing.
There are some attractive thatched ‘Ferme Ornée' style cottages in the remote village of Frogham nearby.

Two areas of very ancient and very massive old trees are of great importance:

1) The oaks near the house. A ring fence instead of a ha-ha, (no landfall) enclosed the 18th century house, and within this, among later laurel scrub and evergreens, can be found several quite unique oaks of great age and size, records of which are known for at least 200 years. Four of these veterans have existed for so long that they have acquired local names:

a) ‘Majesty': It is the largest surviving maiden oak in the UK (even outclassing the Sherwood Forest Major). It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, and is at least 400-450 years of age. It is huge, spreading, and in reasonable condition, but branches lost in 1930 are accelerating decay on the east side.

b) The other three gnarled, massive trees are ‘Beauty', ‘Staghorn' and ‘Stately'. These are not quite the size of Majesty, but £100 was offered for Stately in 1890. Survey is needed.

2) The Spanish chestnut avenue. This runs south-east across the park well away from the site of the old house, and it must date from the 17th century. It has no focal feature at its south-east end. Some trees have died and others are well past healthy maturity. This is a unique feature.

The October 1987 storm caused considerable damage to the woodland belts and beech woods to the south-east. Holm oaks were also damaged. However the famous and ancient oaks named above are all undamaged. The sweet chestnut avenue is also reasonably intact.




Music in this vlog

Music by Nico Anuch - Good Vibes - https://thmatc.co/?l=4BB56013
Music by Ryan Little - Bloom - https://thmatc.co/?l=0D66BC9D
Music by Nico Anuch - Shiba Inu - https://thmatc.co/?l=DE0E84AC
Music by Nico Anuch - Lost on Earth - https://thmatc.co/?l=E28D7AA5