Yesterdays walk in the park – The Allerton Oak

Yesterday once I had left work Mr H and Charlie dog collected me and we went to a park so that Charlie could have a walk.

We love our little trips to Calderstones park in Allerton, normally after our gentle stroll in the park we would go and relax outside the mansion house with is now the cafe and have some refreshments. On yesterdays visit the cafe was still closed as they are still in lockdown. With lockdown still not lifted yet here in the UK the park was quite busy with families enjoy some precious time together and a little bit of sun so we altered our normal walk around the park for a slightly quieter route so that Charlie could have a little run. Our quieter route took us past the Allerton Oak.

The Allerton oak is a Sessile oak that is believed to be 1,000 years old. Legend says that the trees spreading branches sheltered the medievil hundred court. The trunk has a split down the middle of it and it is largely hollow, there are many legends about how this was caused but nobody is sure of the actual reason. The branches at the sides where the oak has spread are actually being held up by metal crutches and have been since 1907 but these are at a point where they will soon need to be replaced and the tree itself has a fence around it to protect it. It has won tree of the year twice once in 2014 and then again in 2019 and was entered into the European tree of the year in 2020 were it came 7th out of 16 trees with 16,449 votes. Any money raised from these competitions and donations from people help to maintain the tree.

In a moment of quiet while we stood just looking at the tree and taking some photographs the little grey squirrel just sat on one of the branches that are being held up with no worries looking out to see what was happening.

So hopefully you will think that same as me in that the tree in some ways in a little unusual if not only by the way that it looks for City Sonnets photo a day challenge and for the Friday friendly challenge but it was also a quiet moment within a rather busy park for the Lens Artists photo challenge.