The Demise of the Mawley Oak

This post was suggested and facilitated by Michael Billings from an article he sent me - http://wbrc.org.uk/worcrecd/Issue12/mawley.htm

In the article BM Stephens wrote -

" The mighty Mawley Oak collapsed at about 9.00am, Monday, 29th October, 2001, after a long period of increasing weakness. There had been some strong SW winds for several days preceding but, on this morning, not exceptional, W to NW, about force 5 perhaps gusting 6. Possibly the change of wind direction was significant and the extra strain more than the tortured trunk could stand. Witnesses, at the garage opposite, heard a loud crack and down it came, "Just like that!" narrowly missing the main road."


Many who attended the school remember this landmark tree.
It's statistics were -
The Mawley Oak Estimated age 240 years,  Height 90 feet Girth breast height 24 feet Max. spread of canopy 130 feet.

This tree is situated near the junction of the B4202 road from Clows Top and the A4117 road from Far Forest to Cleobury Mortimer.  The bark was extremely crevassed to the extent that it held the nest of a wren and one small branch was rotten and a colony of honey bees were flying in and out of a hole in it. Dr. Norman Hickin described the Mawley Oak in his book The Natural History of an English Forest (Hutchinson 1971 page 6), so it's certainly a renowned and ancient tree.