MSO6985 - Hoar Oak Tree (Tree)

SS 74756 43060 Hoar Oak Tree is the latest successor of historic oak trees which marked where the Forest of Exmoor boundary met the boundary dividing the commons of Lynton and Brendon. A tree, annotated 'Hoar Oak Tree' is depicted between the stream and boundary bank on the 1890 Ordnance Survey map at SS 74742 43016. [1] According to McDermot [2] the original oak fell about the year 1658. In 1662 a young oak was set at, or very near, the place where the old oak stood. McDermot shows a picture of Hoar Oak Tree (facing page 348) stating that the previous tree, which stood a few yards below the gate,' blew down in 1916'. (Presumably this refers to the tree shown by the Ordnance Survey which would have made it 254 years old.) He does not however say when the tree in the picture was planted.The present tree (presumably the one in McDermot's picture) stands at SS 74756 43060 on the south side of the stream some 5 metres above the gate protected by a wooden fence (so is about 17 metres east of the site surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1888). The current tree is thriving and in good condition though somewhat stunted. Burton says this tree when measured on 23 Jan 1983 was 7.4 metres high and had girth of 1 metre [3]. Surveyed at 1:2500.[4] Hoar Oak Tree is often mentioned in the annual perambulations of the forest. [2, 5-6] The Hoar Oak Tree is mentioned in the 2013 report by Hazel Riley, a field survey and synthesis of previous projects in the Hoaroak Valley, funded by the Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme. [7] The tree is depicted on one of the two 1818 Inclosure Maps of Exmoor. [8] It is also shown but also labelled on the other Inclosure Map. [9] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [10]