IT’S A piece of Earley’s history, and a local landmark, but it’s no more.
Around 2.30am on Easter Monday, a 300-year-old oak tree came down.
Residents reported hearing a loud noise as it came down, but thankfully it fell into the road and no one was injured and no homes were damaged.
The historic oak marked the start of Luckmore Drive at its junction with Betchworth Avenue, which is off Wilderness Road.
It is thought that the tree’s old age was enough to see it come down, with its base starting to rot away as a result of extensive cubical brown rot.
A team from Wokingham Borough Council’s contractors, VolkerWessels UK, arrived in the morning to help with the clear up.
A note of the council’s Facebook page said: “The incident was dealt with swiftly, the road was cleared and the remains of the tree will be soon moved to a country park in the borough.”
Cllr Tahir Maher, Liberal Democrat councillor for Maiden Erlegh, said that he was relieved no one had been hurt.
He said: “Having discussed this with Wokingham Borough Council they assured us that they had assessed the other trees in the area of equivalent or similar age and discussed their finding with local residents.
“It’s sad to see a great oak like this fall and is swept away on the winds of time.”
The Wokingham District Veteran Tree Association said that residents that expressed sadness that they could no longer say ‘turn right just before the old oak tree’.
A spokesperson said: “We are saddened at the loss of this tree. It is the third very large oak tree that has fallen or broken since the start of this year.
“We have not had as many winter casualties since we started recording the local trees over 12 years ago.”
The group said it would like to see a replacement tree planted at the site if it is safe to do so.
“Street trees which have been lost recently have not been replaced,” they said.
“The council’s Climate Emergency plans includes planting 250,000 trees over the next few years. We would like some of these to be replacement street trees at sites like this one where a significant tree has been lost.
“We would very much like the wood from the tree to be used, possibly to make a sculpture for the nearby Maiden Erlegh nature reserve.”
They added: “The other significant large oak trees that have suffered major damage this winter are a 6.62m girth tree – one of the very largest we have recorded in the borough – in the fields near Ludgrove School which snapped in half in Storm Chiara and a 5m girth oak close to Barkham Manor which lost several very large boughs in March.”
