Major Oak

In 1999 the Major Oak was estimated to weigh 23 long tons, had a girth of 33 feet (10 m) and a canopy of 92 feet (28 m) at its peak, and was thought to be between 800 and 1,200 years old.^[1][2][3][4]

The tree was originally known as the Cockpen Tree, after the cockfighting that once took place beneath it.^[5] It was later named the Major Oak after Major Hayman Rooke, a British Army soldier and antiquarian who described the tree in his 1790 book Description and Sketches of Some Remarkable Oaks, writing: "I think no one can behold this majestic ruin without pronouncing it to be of very remote antiquity; and might venture to say, that it cannot be much less than a thousand years old."^[6][7]

It is unclear whether the Major Oak is a single tree or several saplings that became fused together,^[8] which may account for its distinctive shape. The tree is commonly considered the UK's second-largest oak, surpassed only by the Majesty Oak in Fredville Park in the village of Nonington, near Dover, Kent.^[9]

The tree has long been linked in local folklore with Robin Hood and his Merry Men, who were said to have sheltered beneath it.^[10][11]

Major Hayman Rooke first formally identified the tree in 1790.^[7] Support chains were first fitted in 1908, and its massive branches were partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding beginning in the 1970s.^[12] In 1974, fences were installed around the tree to protect its root system, as the volume of visitors was compacting the surrounding soil.^[13]

Around 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst was among approximately 30 suffragettes reported to have climbed inside the tree.^[14]

The "Robin Hood Oak" on the campus of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is a direct descendant of the Major Oak, having been grown from one of the Major Oak's acorns collected in 1926.^[15]

The formation sign of the 46th Infantry Division of the British Army during World War II was the Major Oak.^[16] Among the units of the division were battalions of the Sherwood Foresters regiment.^[17]

In 1982 the tree suffered significant damage from a fire that was extinguished by the fire brigade. Nottinghamshire Police reported that the blaze had been caused by arsonists.^[18]

In a 2002 public survey, the Major Oak was voted "Britain's favourite tree".^[19] In 2003, a plantation of 260 saplings grown from acorns of the Major Oak was established in Dorset, intended to support an internet-based study of the tree's history, photographic record, variation in size and leafing among the saplings, comparison of their DNA, and to eventually serve as a public amenity.^[7][20] In 2013, Major Oak saplings were given to pantomime actors Barney Harwood, Su Pollard, and David Hasselhoff.^[21]

In 2014 it was voted England's Tree of the Year in a public poll organised by the Woodland Trust, receiving 18% of the votes.^[22][2] The tree was also featured on the 2005 television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the Midlands.^[23]

The tree receives approximately 350,000 visitors annually,^[24]

From 2022 onwards, the tree suffered from summer heat waves and produced progressively fewer leaves.^[25] Rumours of the tree's decline were initially denied by the RSPB, which manages the forest.^[26] However, its death was officially confirmed by the RSPB in June 2026, after prolonged stress from a succession of hot, dry summers caused it to fail to produce any leaves that year.^[24][27] The RSPB attributed part of the blame to the scaffolding, which had artificially forced the tree to pump water towards its propped-up branches – at the expense of its trunk – rather than allowing it to shed branches naturally and begin "growing down", as would be expected for a tree of its age. Additional contributing factors included soil compaction resulting from two centuries of tourist and vehicular traffic, and alterations to the water table caused by nearby coal mining.^[24]

The Major Oak is situated within a Site of Special Scientific Interest and will remain standing rather than being felled.^[21][28]

• 
  Illustration in The Illustrated Guide to Sheffield and the Surrounding District, Etc., by John Taylor of Sheffield (1879)
• 
  The Major Oak with the support system in place, June 2014
• 
  The Major Oak in December 2006
• 
  The Major Oak in 2013
• 
  Major Oak information board, 2015
• 
  The Major Oak "entrance", May 1972
• 
  Naming of the tree
• 
  Path towards the Major Oak, 2012
• 
  Designated as a Great British Tree

• List of Great British Trees
• List of individual trees
• Robin Hood's Larder, another ancient oak in Sherwood Forest
• Sycamore Gap tree, also known as the "Robin Hood Tree"