Most visitors to the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre at Edwinstowe take the short walk through the ancient oaks and birches of Birklands to visit the Major Oak - one of the most famous trees in England.

A tourist attraction since Victorian times, currently over 800,000 people from all over the world visit it each year. Legend has it that this massive tree, whose trunk is 33 feet (10m) in circumference and whose branches spread over 92 feet (28m), once gave shelter to Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.

The truth is that the tree, which is estimated to weigh about 23 tons, is at least 800 years old, so if we believe that Robin was around in the 11th or 12th centuries, this tree could only have been a sapling. So it must have been another, much older oak which hid him and his band of outlaws.

Panoramic Imaging - The Major Oak Near Edwinstowe, North Nottinghamshire

The name we know the Major Oak by now derives not from the fact that it is the largest and probably oldest tree in Sherwood, but from the man who first "discovered" it, Major Hayman Rooke. He was a noted antiquarian and pioneer archaeologist from Mansfield Woodhouse, who described the oak in his book Remarkable Oaks in the Park of Welbeck, published in 1790.

Natural or Man-Made?
One interesting theory about the size and history of the Major Oak is that it is not one tree at all, but several. The chance germination of several acorns, perhaps buried by a jay or squirrel eight centuries ago, could have resulted in three or four trees beginning to grow very close to one another. After many years, the young saplings may have fused together to give the appearance of one massive tree. The large grooves visible in the trunk and the several chambers in the hollow interior lend support to this idea.

The tree could also have been pollarded - that is, its branches may have been cut regularly to increase the amount of timber grown - and this may also have caused the trunk to grow so large and round.

Because of the importance of the Major Oak, conservation measures have been taken since the early part of the 20th century to protect it. In 1908 metal bands and support chains were installed. From 1975, the public were kept away from the tree by fencing, after it was discovered that their trampling feet were compacting the soil, and depriving the tree of vital nutrients. From the late 1970s wooden poles were erected to support the heaviest branches, and in 2001, these wooden struts were replaced with an improved metal support system. The tree is now inspected daily by Country Park Rangers, and tree surgeons visit it regularly to check on its health. Hopefully it should continue to inspire visitors for many more years to come.

The Major Oak is not the only 'veteran' Sherwood tree, and over the years, many others have been important enough to attract legends and be given names. Perhaps the best known of these was the Parliament Oak at Clipstone, under which King John is alleged to have convened a meeting of his parliament in the summer of 1212 while he was hunting in Sherwood. The Parliament Oak today is an off-shoot grown from the base of the original, which split down the middle and died.

In Birklands, another famous Sherwood oak, now gone, was the Shambles Oak, also known as Robin Hood's Larder or the Slaughter Tree. This huge hollow oak was where Robin was supposed to have stored his stolen venison. Damaged by fire in 1913, it finally blew down in 1961.

The Gospel, or Pilgrim Oak standing at the entrance to Newstead Abbev was where pilgrims to the priory congregated to hear readings from the Bible. The Greendale Oak in Welbeck Park was once the greatest tree of all, capable of having a coach and horses driven through it. In 1646, it measured 88 feet (27m) high and its crown was 81 feet (25m) wide. But by 1905 only a single limb remained, and now that is lost. The Seven Sisters tree in the same park was an oak with seven parallel trunks, and the Ruysdale Oak nearby was named after the Dutch painter who loved to introduce such trees into his paintings.

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