Can you trace your ancestors back to the time this tree was an acorn?

Trees

The Great Oak at Panshanger, by Thomas Medland

The Panshanger Oak was so impressive that in 1814  Thomas Medland painted it as a fine example of an oak tree and later published engravings of it. In 1841 Queen Victoria visited it to admire its immense size and the surpassing beauty of its growth, for which it has not its rival in the Kingdom. And it is still standing, the oldest maiden oak in the country, and is believed to be at least 600 years old.

For more about its history (including extracts from old newspapers) and recent pictures, see The Panshanger Oak.

Don't Forget, Wood was a commercial crop.

It is important to remember that wood was an important crop in 19th century Hertfordshire, and would be widely used, especially in rural area, as fuel and as building materials, and with pigs eating up the beech nuts and acorns. In addition small woods would have been kept as cover for foxes - as fox hunting was had a strong following among the rural well-to do. There were regular sales and this advert from the Herts Mercury gives details of oak trees being sold from several estates in the South East of the County. Many of the older woods that survive today have only survived because the trees were regularly harvested.