This morning we opened Ancient Trees: Portraits in Time by Beth Moon at random and found this:
The legendary Bowthorpe Oak, with its rugged bole, gnarled branches, and great spreading crown, stands in a grasy meadow behind a stone farmhouse in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The sight of this tree standing alone in the field stirs the heart. With a circumference of forty feet, it competes with Majesty for the title of largest girthed living British oak. It is perhaps the oldest oak tree, estimated to be around 1,200 years old (give or take a century).
