The large oak tree behind the stable is over a hundred years old so it needed a balancing prune and it’s lower branches lifted. The view is even more spectacular, and the branches will still provide shade in the summer although the pile of woodchip is much smaller than expected so may have to get more delivered for the seating area. The sad news is that a visual survey of the centre of the main trunk revealed significant cavities in each of the three large limbs, the biggest is more than two meters deep and full of loose fibrous material, the other two are smaller but taken together there’s a risk of the tree being felled in a gale either tomorrow or in a few years time, it’s difficult to predict. One option is to have it felled; decided not to do that as it’s such a joy to look at and a significant landmark, I hope it lasts another hundred years!
