A boundary marker, a meeting place, a gallows?

Wenlock Edge An ancient oak shows signs of awakening after another winter

The oak loomed above other trees in a scrubby corner of the field. Despite claims that it was officially spring, and with no respect for meteorology, calendars or tradition, the great oak seemed to feel as though it was holding on to winter and would not turn until it was good and ready.

It must have been an important landmark for centuries, visible from all cardinal points, growing on flat pasture close to a spring that issues from the hillside and pours into a wooded ravine to join the brook, which then enters the river Severn. A boundary marker, a meeting place, a preaching tree, a tree for wakes and waits, fairs and festivals, a gallows?