Arboreal Encounters
Arboreal Encounters are a series of portraits made with six heritage oak trees across England. Each tree was chosen from the 2002 ‘Great British Trees’ list collated by the Tree Council, an environmentalist and tree charity, to commemorate the late-Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Emerging from experiments with anthotype printing using oak leaves (the process of using photosensitive material already present in plants), each image is first made as a 120mm black and white negative, then printed as a cyanotype, before being bleached and toned with tannin extracted from the bark of oak trees.
This process was inspired by questioning how I could include the trees in the process of their visual representation. As I began to read more around the idea of plant intelligence, I learnt of several scientific discoveries that implied plants may hold the capacity for memory and to creatively make decisions. This new knowledge shifted my approach and thinking not only about plants in general, but also about how photography might interact with a non-human subject. In short, representing the trees using my camera without an attempt to “include” them somehow in the photographic process began to feel exploitative. To resolve this, I began to research ways that I might be able to introduce the oak into creative processes. This eventually led to experiments in extracting tannin from oak bark to tone cyanotypes I exposed in the sun, mimicking the process of photosynthesis. As more experiments and more thinking around this developed, I began to perceive the watercolour paper prints as a kind of membrane that bound the human representation of the tree (the photograph) together with an organic compound within it (the tannin); their fibrous combination conceived as a collaborative effort between myself and the tree.
As the tannin shifts the colour profile and the tonal range of the print, the images therefore cannot be encountered without looking at, and through, a part of the tree itself. Because of this, the project and resulting prints function as a metaphor for the ability of plants to change perspectives on how the natural world is perceived (much like the scientific experiments changed my own thinking), and how plants themselves might have agency within that process. As each tree depicted within this project are considered “heritage trees”, visual attention is drawn to aspects of what I call “cultural infrastructure” — physical material such as fences, staves, wires and metal “corsets”, all of which maintain each tree’s individual health and are an attempt to preserve their lives for generations to come. Displayed next to each print are information panels detailing the history, naming and stories of each tree.
Below are photographs of the resulting prints, a brief individual history of each tree, as well as text extracts from a published paper and my thesis to give additional context to the project. A further discussion of the ideas, methods and theories surrounding this project features in my paper ‘Photographic Phytography: Towards a Photographic Re-centring of the Oak within Theory, Material and Practice’, published April 2024 in Plant Perspectives, a new journal of interdisciplinary plant-studies.
Queen Elizabeth I Oak, Cowdray Park, Midhurst, from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2022. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper.
Queen Elizabeth I Oak,
Cowdray Park,
Midhurst, West Sussex,
U.K.
The tree is named due to the story of Queen Elizabeth I having allegedly shot a deer from beneath its branches, while visiting the Cowdray Estate in 1593 (Questier, 2006: 170-174; Miles, 2013). They are also one of the rarer examples of trees that bare royal association with monarch’s, in that there is evidence of Queen Elizabeth I indeed travelling to the estate and staying for several days (Questier, 2006: 170-174). Whether or not this was the tree she stood against, if the event even occurred, or if indeed she did shoot a deer at all, remains a myth.
According to the Woodland Trust, the tree is the third largest sessile oak to be recorded in the U.K, having a girth of around 41.9 feet in circumference (12.8 meters) and standing at 28 feet tall (8.54 meters). Additional, or corruptions, of the tree's name include the 'Queen Elizabeth Oak' or 'Queen Elizabeth's Oak'. The latter, however, is more likely a confusion with a deceased oak whose dead wood resides in the grounds of Greenwich Park, London, alongside a descendent oak planted by the late-Prince Phillip in 1992, to commemorate the late-Queen's Ruby Jubilee.
One of the Queen Elizabeth I Oak's major characteristics is a huge split down the centre of its trunk. The interior of the tree is entirely hollow and, to give a sense of scale, is said to be able to house around twenty people. Found in the historic deer park a short walk from the car park just off the A272, there is no discernible signage to direct interested parties to the tree (as of May 2021), however the plaque to mark it a ‘Great British Tree’ in 2002 remains as a form of identification, once discovered.
“By using analogue processes combined with organic material within Arboreal Encounters, the oak trees are conceived as participants and collaborators and in so doing become agents in the process of their visual representation. The decision to work with the trees, rather than simply using their image as an illustration of philosophical inquiry, is an essential part of my creative methodology […] As cyanotypes are made and rely upon a high level of ultraviolet light to properly produce a print, Arboreal Encounters is seasonally restricted to the late-spring and summer months, coming into bloom much like the leaves and flowers more generally associated with the cyanotype process and aesthetic. Although UV lamps can be bought and used to compensate for the lack of ultraviolet light in winter and autumn, the size of my own prints make it difficult in terms of both space and money for this to be viable. The result of this, however, means that the secondary aspect of Arboreal Encounters, the production of a cyanotype print, is once more rooted within a release of human control and adherence to climate and season, retaining the symbolic relationship between both plants and photographs co-reliance on sunlight.”
Quote taken from my writing on the project Arboreal Encounters in ‘Photographic Phytography: Towards a Photographic Re-centring of the Oak within Theory, Material and Practice’, Plant Perspectives.
Son of Royal Oak,
Boscobel House,
Boscobel, Shropshire,
U.K.
Sometimes also called 'The Royal Oak', the tree as it stands today is actually a descendant of the original tree who was named due to their association with King Charles II (1630-1685). The name arises from the story of Charles II allegedly having hid among the tree's branches as he was taking refuge in Boscobel House and the surrounding oak woodland, while on the run from the parliamentarians (Miles, 2013). After the King was restored to the throne the tree became a site of pilgrimage for royalists and those wishing to preserve a memento of Charles' restoration. According to Samuel Pepys in 1702, the tree's popularity eventually rendered it completely without bark, causing the Royal Oak to die sometime in the early 18th century (de Groot, 2016). To preserve the event's history, an acorn from the original Royal Oak was planted as a replacement and has since grown into the modern day 'Son of Royal Oak'.
Because of this, the name of the current tree within the grounds of Boscobel House was adapted to signify its linkages and cultural ties to the previous tree and, I imagine, to retain their royal connections. Interestingly enough, due to this adaptation, the naming of 'Son of Royal Oak' also acts as a kind of organic repurposing of human activities, namely primogeniture — placing significant importance on gendered notions of inheritance, of land, status and class upon the tree.
In 2000, the tree was badly damaged during a violent storm, loosing many of its branches and developing its now characteristic shape. Ten years later, after a review of the tree's health, Son of Royal Oak was also found to have developed large and dangerous cracks. The subsequent fencing and ties that hold a piece of wood against the tree's trunk are to ensure the tree's health and the safety of visitors.
Son of Royal Oak, Boscobel House, Boscobel, Shropshire from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2022. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper.
“As the tannin effects the tone and therefore the visual structure of the print, it could also be said that one literally views and therefore perceives each tree through an aspect of the tree itself. The tannin, as a layer, acts as if a translucent barrier between the human looking at the print and its human representation beneath its tonal impression, functioning as if a lens between them. As the tannin was previously part of the bark of the oak, there is also a curious correlation between the print and the tree when thinking about notions of materiality and form. Tannin, when found within oak trees, functions primarily to protect them from predators or from fungal and bacterial infection. When oaks are pliant and young, the volume of tannic acid flowing through their frame can prevent excessive and potentially fatal grazing by filling their stems and leaves with a bitter aftertaste to make them unpalatable for munching insects and animals alike (Oakes, 2021). Although invisible to the human eye as this process happens within the interior anatomy of the plant, the photographic process of Arboreal Encounters reveals and visually references a highly important aspect of the lifecycle of the tree that enables them to survive over centuries, much like the mythic, cultural stories that have protected them and prevented their felling.
To take the example of the Queen Elizabeth I Oak, the tree’s royalist associations with the tudor Queen are derived from a story of her allegedly shooting a deer from beneath its branches during a visit to the Cowdray Estate in 1593 (Miles, 2016). A rare example of tree’s that bare royal names due to the monarch’s proximity to the area, in that there is evidence for her visitation within the estate archives that places her within an accurate time and place associated with the tree (Questier, 2006). To name a tree from a monarch’s visit is to embed their visitation within the land, to draw royalist connections between the crown and aristocratic families that are aligned politically, and to ascribe such associations visually. To fell the tree is to therefore cut the ties and to visibly sever the family’s sovereignty over the land. That the oak has survived four-hundred-and-thirty years after the event that elevated its value is a testament to the sociocultural power that can be held over specific trees and enable their survival (Jones and Cloke, 2002).”
Quote taken from my writing on the project Arboreal Encounters in ‘Photographic Phytography: Towards a Photographic Re-centring of the Oak within Theory, Material and Practice’, Plant Perspectives.
Major Oak, Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2022. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper.
Major Oak,
Sherwood Forest,
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire,
U.K.
The Major Oak is allegedly Britain’s largest oak in scale with an estimated weight of 23 tonnes, a girth of 33ft (10 meters) and a height of 92ft (28 meters). The tree’s fame derives from its connections to the legend of Robin Hood, as it was allegedly the home providing him and his Merry Men with shelter (Miles, 2013). It is one of a few trees on the list of ‘Great British Trees’ in a public space that actually has a form of cultural infrastructure in place (the Major Oak trail) in order to direct visitors to it (Visit Nottinghamshire, 2022).
Despite is mythic connections to the story of Robin Hood, the Major Oak’s current name actually stems from the British soldier and antiquarian (a previous term for a student of ancient history or archeology) Major Hayman Rooke, whose name became associated with the tree after he featured a drawing of it in his 1790 book Remarkable Oaks. Before this it was known as the ‘Cockpen Tree’, a reference made to its hollow trunk being used to hold baskets of cockerels for fighting (The Woodland Trust, 2019). Evidence of why the tree is so large, aside from its perceived grand age (between 600-1,000 years old), is contested, however according to The Woodland Trust it may have come from being a working pollard, a method of tree management to create a series of dense branches to maintain a regular source of wood for harvest. Other theories suggest the tree could actually be a series of saplings which have fused together to make one large tree, a natural phenomenon called inosculation.
The tree has several impressive preservation methods in place to keep it supported. In 1908, chains were fitted to the tree to help keep it together, and a series of wooden staves wrapped together by the chains have been in place since the 1970's. In the same decade a large fence was erected due to the tree's roots beginning to suffer from compaction, a result of thousands of visitors to the tree each year (Sherwood Forest Website, 2024). The physical infrastructure responsible for its preservation is therefore just as remarkable as the tree itself, as well as being one of many conservation methods put in place to protect such heritage trees from becoming victim to their own massive size.
“What occurs inside this combination of organic and cultural associations within the print is a series of interesting and complex overlaps that are worth briefly reviewing. Firstly, the tannin within the tree acts as a protective component against biological invasion, functioning more or less in the same way as the cultural associations that surround the heritage trees as they both intentionally prevent the tree from dying. Secondly, the tonal outcome of the print as a result of the tannin performs visual associations with antique or historical prints, therefore acting as referents to the age of the trees and to the myths that elevate them to heritage status. As these myths function, both historically and through contemporary tree management practices, to protect the trees from damage, it could be said here that the as the tannin moves from one material to the next, it transfers and visually transforms many of its protective functions from within the body of the tree, into the body of the print.”
Quote taken from my writing on the project Arboreal Encounters in ‘Photographic Phytography: Towards a Photographic Re-centring of the Oak within Theory, Material and Practice’, Plant Perspectives.
Big Belly Oak,
Savernake Forest,
Marlborough, Wiltshire,
U.K.
Perhaps one of the most enigmatic of the trees of my selection, mostly due to the lack of information available on its history or naming, the Big Belly Oak is one of several great oaks within Savernake Forest, others being The King of Limbs and The Cathedral Oak, as examples. Its name appears to derive directly from its physical appearance — its trunk bellowing at the bottom resembling a bloated human stomach. It is also, however, occasionally referred to as the Big-Bellied Oak. According to a BBC article in 2002, a local legend surrounding the tree tells of how, if one were to dance naked twelve times, anti-clockwise around the tree, the Devil may be summoned (BBC News, 2002).
A major characteristic of the tree is their large metal ‘corset’ that holds the tree together just above the 'belly', a conservation method implemented in early 2002 to prevent the tree from splitting in half (BBC News, 2002; Dalton, 2023). As another pollarded tree, the large cavity that subsequently emerged is a direct result of this method is also a reason for its taring; the limbs either side of the tree's trunk effectively pulling it slowly apart.
Despite this preventative measure no fences are in place to block visitors from getting close to the tree or stepping inside its hollow trunk. This is most likely due to its proximity to the A346, being just a few meters from the road. Because of this, visibility is good if travelling to Savernake by car, or even if you just happen to be passing, however good local knowledge is required to find the tree on foot as there are no signs (as of July 2023) directing you to the tree within the forest. Two signs identify the tree when found, one being the plaque to identify Big Belly as one of 50 'Great British Trees', the other being a name plate put together by those who manage the forest.
Big Belly Oak, Savernake Forest, Marlborough from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2022. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper
“As all my printmaking for Arboreal Encounters was produced within my parent’s garden, I was also able to use collected rainwater from a series of water-butts positioned around their bungalow to wash and fix the prints post-exposure, as well as during the bleaching and tonal process. This additional aspect of utilising a component of the natural world within the processing of photographic prints through a by-product of weather conditions, rather than the more easily accessible mains water supply, is yet another example of how photographic prints can become literally saturated with meaning and by the environment within which they are made.
To think of the combination of this photographic process […] some interesting observations emerge. Firstly, photographs made in this way directly engage with the landscape from which they are made and therefore create a material connection between object (the photographic print) and subject (the plant). As I am unable to use the physical trees within the production of prints due to their age and protected status, the tannin extract could be thought of as a substitute in lieu of physical plants to maintain this material connection between subject and object. Furthermore, these photographic prints engage in an interesting conversation around the difference between an objective, distanced interpretation of a subject, and the subject’s direct interactions with the surface (and fibres) of the print. It could be said, therefore, that using the physical parts of the tree within the process of artmaking provides the plant with a sense of agency that informs the resulting print, and by extension how the viewer meets and interprets the image.”
Quote taken from my writing on the project Arboreal Encounters in ‘Photographic Phytography: Towards a Photographic Re-centring of the Oak within Theory, Material and Practice’, Plant Perspectives.
Panshanger Great Oak, Panshanger Park, Hertfordshire, from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2024. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper (print currently in development).
Panshanger Great Oak,
Panshanger Park,
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,
U.K.
The Panshanger Great Oak is known as the largest maiden oak tree (maiden meaning un-pollarded or clear stemmed, unlike the Major Oak) in the U.K. They reside in Panshanger Park, a once great estate whose grounds were designed by Humphrey Repton (regarded as a successor to Capability Brown), however, it is now owned by the British building materials company Tarmac, who extract sand and gravel from the site. Visits to the tree are assisted by various maps located around the car park off Thieves Lane, which direct walkers via the ‘Oak Trail’, not dissimilar to the Major Oak trail in Sherwood Forest. The oak resides in a wooded area of the park that was once open parkland, and is protected by a traditional Cheshire fence put in place in 2019 that now encircles the tree (The Traditional Company, 2019).
The oak’s height stands at 65 feet (198 metres) tall and is 26 feet (7.8 meters) in circumference. Estimated at around 450-500 years old, Panshanger is thought to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth I herself, drawing a secondary connection to the tudor Queen within this selection of trees (Panshanger Notice Board, 2024). Winston Churchill, who once stated the tree was “the finest and most stately oak growing in the south east of England”, favoured the tree so much as to plant one of its acorns within the surrounding woodland, which survives to this day. Another descendent from the Panshanger Great Oak also exists near Speech House, Gloucester (built in 1669 as a hunting lodge for Charles II), having been planted by Prince Albert in 1861 (Miles, 2021).
A grand tree in their own right, Panshanger also has a section of characteristic scar tissue on the trunk that resembles an eye, perhaps a result of the tree self shedding branches, a natural phenomenon called cladoptosis.
Interactive Map
Below are the plotted locations of each heritage tree I have visited and made an image with, to give the scope of travel across England. Use the location button (second button down on the top right hand corner) to find the closest one to you to plan your visit, or search your location via the search bar (top left hand corner).
Kett’s Oak,
B1172,
Wymondham, Norfolk,
U.K.
Perhaps the tree on this list with the most unpleasant story attached to them, Kett’s Oak is the traditional location of what became known as the 1549 Kett’s Rebellion, named after the brother’s William and Robert Kett. The Kett’s Rebellion was, in short, a revolt in response to wealthy landowners enclosing ‘common land’ (a term to describe collective land that all people have the rights to use), by fencing off newly proclaimed boundary lines and pushing poorer workers from their homes. Robert Kett, a local yeoman (someone who owns or cultivates land, or is a middle-ranking servant within a noble household), rather than resisting the revolt, became their leader and spearheaded the tearing down of enclosure fences before leading his followers to battle, eventually loosing to the forces of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland.
After loosing the battle the Kett brother's were subsequently captured, tried for treason and hung later that year (it is worth noting that John Dudley was also later tried and executed for treason). Nine of their followers who were also captured are said to have been hung from the boughs of Kett’s oak. As such, the tree became a symbol of the rebellion and was occasionally referred to as the ‘Oak of Reformation’. However, allegedly the original ‘Oak of Reformation’ no longer stands, having been cut down sometime in the 1960’s to make way for a local car park. The specific association of the revolt to this tree, therefore, is ambiguous.
Nevertheless, the tree has several fascinating preservation features contributing to its continued protection. On the left of this photograph, a huge, A-frame constructed to hold up an enormous bough can be seen emerging from the ground, as can a fabric support held by wire on the far-right hand side. The tree is protected by a narrow fence, similar to Son of Royal Oak, however due to the tree’s proximity to the B1172, there are no further fences to protect them. Visitation to the tree is slightly tricky, but can be accessed via a cycle lane that runs adjacent to the road. Although the lane does take you close to the tree, there is a deep dip between the lane and the hedgerow that creates pause, particularly as the surrounding vegetations is made up primarily of brambles and stinging nettles.
Kett’s Oak, Wymondham, Norfolk from the series Arboreal Encounters as part of the practice-based PhD project ‘These Rooted Bodies: Photographic Encounters with Plant Intelligence and the English oak tree through Material, Theory and Practice’. 2024. 21 x 29.7cm print on 29.7 x 42cm paper. Oak bark tannin-toned cyanotype on Langton watercolour paper (print currently in development).