Pollarded or Coppiced Old Oak?

[tigger]

I've just put a post on my online wildlife diary about a tree I found the other day. It was in an old hedgerow, bordering a wood, by the side of a path.



It looks like an old pollarded oak to me, or is it coppiced?

The tree runs from where I am standing, right the way across to the right of the picture. I'm standing in the picture, just to give it scale

It had a 15 metre girth at 1 metre high.

I wondered whether anyone had any interesting information on old hedgerow trees. I've never seen an oak this big in a hedgerow.

And just in case you were wondering, I have added it to the Ancient Tree Hunt database.

Thanks

Jane

[wyevilla]

What a great tree.

Depending on the age of the hedge, the tree could well pre-date the hedgerow. In this case the hedge may well have been deliberately aligned to include such an obvious boundary marker as a veteran oak. It could well have been coppiced for timber in its early history.

However, if the tree is younger (and the hedge is therefore very old), it could well have been subjected to trimming due to hedge-laying and/or pollarding.

Either way, a tree such as this has obviously been important as both a resource and a land mark for a very long time.

[Cotham Marble]

Although a differentiation between coppice and pollard can usually be made on the basis of height above ground that the cut is made - pollard above browsing height, coppice at or near ground level, a more diffinitive separation can be made on the basis of the number of 'trunks' that are allowed to develop. A pollard has a single trunk at the top of which is a crown from which multiple branches are allowed to develop. A coppiced tree has multiple trunks sprouting from a low stool.

On balance it looks as though your tree is a grown out coppice. Oaks were coppiced on an exceptionally long cycle - 20 years plus, in comparison to Hazel 7/8 years - Ash - 8 -15 years.

CM

[tufftie]

It's been coppiced - ages back by the looks of it!

[coasty]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

Although a differentiation between coppice and pollard can usually be made on the basis of height above ground that the cut is made - pollard above browsing height, coppice at or near ground level, a more diffinitive separation can be made on the basis of the number of 'trunks' that are allowed to develop. A pollard has a single trunk at the top of which is a crown from which multiple branches are allowed to develop. A coppiced tree has multiple trunks sprouting from a low stool.

On balance it looks as though your tree is a grown out coppice. Oaks were coppiced on an exceptionally long cycle - 20 years plus, in comparison to Hazel 7/8 years - Ash - 8 -15 years.

CM

Couldnt have put it better myself... My bet is the tree outdates the hedge..
What a lovely tree..

[Marshall Stax]

Awesome tree. Definitely coppiced and possibly even layered into the hedge at some point, which might account for the girth.

[tigger]

Thanks for all your comments. Really great help. You have explained a few things I wasn't sure about, and got me really thinking about old hedgerow trees (especially oak). Did you know that oaks have been found to hold a staggering 284 different species of insect - I find that quite amazing.

I wondered if anyone else had seen a coppiced oak like this? I can't seem to find any other pictures on the web - not even on the ancient tree hunt website.

I'm still swinging between coppice and pollard.... but on balance the general concensus seems to be that it is coppiced.

Looking forward to hearing anyone elses thoughts on this.

Thanks again.

Jane

[Frimsley]

Well it's not a pollard.

Coppice perhaps. The other possibility is cluster planting, but in a hedgerow I would think coppice is more likely.

I'm not sure about your measuring. If measuring a multi stemmed tree you don't usually just take the outside of all the stems. Exactly what you do do isn't always clear, but one option is to measure the individual stems at 1.5m, work out the cross sectional area, add all the areas together and then work out the diameter of a single stemmed tree that would have the same area. The Ancient Tree Hunt method appears to be to measure both the whole girth at its narrowest point and to measure girth of individual stems at 1.5m.

The other thing that jumps at me looking at the picture is that though it's difficult to tell on a slightly grainy picture with no foliage or branch structure visible, that bark doesn't look like oak to me - rather more ash like.

[Dan Salter]

Yeah im betting it was originally laid and the new trunks have sprouted up from the laid trunk ( which is meant to happen) which as mentioned would give it this extra wide girth....either way its been laid or coppiced not pollarded. GReat find

[tigger]

It could be ash. I was going on all the "oak" leaves that were on the ground beneath it, but will have to wait for spring to be sure.

I will have to go and measure it again more accurately as I have only measured the whole girth at it's narrowest point, and not the girth of the stems.

Thanks for all your help guys.