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400 + and Counting

The Pollard Oak, Towneley Park, Burnley, Lancashire

 

The Pollard Oak is the oldest tree in Burnley and probably Lancashire. With a girth of 32 feet it makes it over 400 years old.

 

It would have been a young tree in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth I (1558) and the time of the gun powder plot of 1605.

 

Its life may have been prolonged by the cutting of the top branches (pollarding) in the past. This is how it derived it’s name.

 

Although it is on the outskirts of a woodland access to it is very difficult, especially at this time of the year with heavy overhanging foliage to contend with. I have spent many hours painstakingly removing the overhanging foliage. It is definitely a return to location, probably mid winter.

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Uploaded on August 20, 2022
Taken on August 20, 2022