The Bowthorpe Oak

A giant oak tree at Bowthorpe Park Farm, just off the A6121 near Manthorpe, three miles south west of Bourne, has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records and in 1998 was the subject of a short film on television about its size and longevity. 

The tree stands in a grassy meadow behind the farmhouse and visitors can see it for a small charge that is donated to charity. The legendary Bowthorpe Oak is the largest girthed living British oak and its circumference measures almost forty feet. Apart from its great size, it has a rugged bole, gnarled and crooked branches and a great spread of crown. It is reputed to be well over 1,000 years old and was therefore growing during the time of William the Conqueror (1066-1087) but chains now bind it to prevent it from splitting under the weight of its heavy boughs.

There is sufficient space within the hollow trunk to hold a party and one former tenant of the farm had a roof and a door installed and used the recess as an additional room in which 39 people have stood at one time and 13 have sat down comfortably to tea while successive generations of children born and raised on the farm have played in its branches. There are many other tales about the uses to which the tree has been put. One former owner used to feed his small calves inside the trunk while children from the Methodist chapel at nearby Manthorpe held their annual tea and treat there.

The oak tree, however, is now at risk from the weather because of its old age, and during severe storms in October 2002, one of the larger branches was blown off by high winds which reached 90 mph.

Bowthorpe Park Farm enjoys a beautiful setting on the side of a hill with a stone farmhouse that is over 400 years old. The surrounding area was originally Bowthorpe Park, hence the name of the farm, and in 1226, Sempringham Priory acquired the manorial chapel which stood there but it has gone, together with its accompanying manor house. The grass in the parkland that remained was lifted during the Second World War and the land cultivated as part of the drive to produce more food for home consumption. Manthorpe village can be seen a few fields away on the next hill and there is an attractive pond alongside the entrance track to the farm. The family who now run the farm welcome visitors throughout the year to take a look at their activities and their busiest period is during the lambing season in the spring, a favourite time for school parties. 

A large branch ripped off the historic oak tree during severe storms in the Bourne area over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday 26th/27th October 2002 when wind forces reached 90 mph but the owners of Bowthorpe Park Farm gave assurances that it would survive.

As the year closed, the massive tree was named as one of the Fifty Great Trees for Fifty Great Years that had been selected from around Britain to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002. The choice was made by the Tree Council, a national conservation organisation founded in 1974 with support from the Department of the Environment and four years later, it became an independent registered charity. The council's aims are to improve the environment in town and country by promoting the planting and conservation of trees and woods throughout the United Kingdom, to disseminate knowledge about trees and their management and to act as a forum for 150 other organisations who are working together for the protection of trees throughout the country. 

The list was drawn up after taking advice from tree wardens around Britain, the 7,500 members of a network known as the National Grid Tree Warden Scheme, who are appointed by parish councils and other local authorities and community groups. Between them, they nominated hundreds of trees from which the final 50 were chosen with the criteria that they should be impressively large, ancient, rare, striking, or the stuff of history and legend, and it was adjudged that the Bowthorpe Oak fully justified its place in the list. 

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