An old oak tree

This is one of a number of veteran trees that a wee group of us had a look at recently. We were looking for ways of identifying trees which had been pollarded in the past, and testing a scoring system that would allow people to estimate the likelihood that a tree had been modified by man. This oak tree scored highly, but what actually happened to it in past centuries will remain a bit of a mystery. Peter Quelch's scoring system will help surveyors and foresters: he introduces it at the annual Native Woodland Discussion Group History Workshop.