Why our hearts go out to Sherwood's ancient oak

Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire Perhaps it is a human-sized story - that after 400,000 days on Earth, the Major Oak is still full of life

Although British place names make frequent reference to different tree species, there can be few road signs giving directions to a single specimen. Nor can there be many English woods more steeped in story than Sherwood Forest.

I found a few incidental tales even as I walked up to the Major oak. There were fairy bonnet mushrooms painting their way across a dead stump like Lowry crowds through Salford. There were some last wasps around a waste bin, and wood pigeons so glutted on acorns their crops bulged. A robin laced its sad song among the birches, but sadder still was a bench with the following inscribed across its seat: "Abby Louise Hucknall - Missed So Much." An emotional counterpoint came amid much open-armed laughter from the children playing along a Halloween-themed trail.