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Famous Kent Trees
At LW Treecare we don’t only tend to trees, we are also enthusiasts, and therefore lucky to be based in the ‘Garden Of England’. Kent is home to countless gardens, woodlands and other habitats where trees of all kinds can flourish. Some have become well-known, even legendary, and all have their own stories to tell:
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The Pedunculate 'Majesty' oak, in Fredville Park, Nonington, Kent, is one of the largest oak trees in Britain and heralded by many tree enthusiasts as Britain’s most impressive oak tree. Its age is unknown, but it is estimated to be more than 1000 years old.
The St. Lawrence cricket ground in Canterbury was home to a 27 metre high lime tree known as the St. Lawrence Lime. The tree, inside the boundary of the cricket pitch, necessitated special rules which stated that a ball hitting the tree would be scored as a ‘4’ and that no batsman could be caught out off a rebound. The exact age of the tree is unknown but it was at least 150 years old when, in 2005, it met its sad end at the hands of extreme high winds which broke the tree in two. The tree had already been diagnosed, in 1999, with heartwood fungus disease and so was not expected to last a further decade.
The 'Majesty' Oak at Fredville Park
The Knole Park oaks from which the Kent town of Sevenoaks derives its name are the stuff of (often inaccurate) legend. Various oak trees lived and perished in the vicinity over the centuries. Seven trees, six of which famously perished in the storm of 1987, had been planted at the nearby Vine cricket ground. Six of their ceremonial replacements were subsequently destroyed by vandals. Today a total of nine oak trees from various eras grace the site.
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The 600 year old hornbeam tree at the National Trust’s Scotney Castle at Lamberhurst, Kent, was short-listed for the Woodlands Trust’s ‘Tree Of The Year’ in 2017. The eventual winner was the Gilwell Oak, in Epping. Similar to the common beech, the hornbeam is known for its twisted trunk. In bygone centuries its leaves were believed to have healing qualities.
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See our guide to common UK trees here.​
The last of the seven oaks to survive the 1987 storm.
Kent tree surgeons LW Treecare can tend to any type of tree, from common UK native species through to the more unusual and exotic non-native variants found in some corners of the county.
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Whatever your arboriculture requirements please feel free to contact us for friendly, expert advice.
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