The air in Furze Hill Woods is tinged with the sweet smell of the nearby maltings factory, a reminder of Mistley’s industrial past. Most of the woodland’s leaved inhabitants are around 70 years old, but among them stand icons of living history – ancient oaks, naturally sculpted over hundreds of years, distended and hollowed, each one more remarkable than the last.
One notable tree has stood here for 800 years, having taken anchor around the time King John signed the Charter of the Forest. Affectionately named Old Knobbley, thanks to its bulbous, lumpy appearance, its trunk is 9.5 metres wide (more than twice its height) and is topped by wizened branches.
Its battle scars are many and visible – the pockmarked patches of woodworm that give way to soft decaying wood; the charred crown where a fire ravaged its already delicate trunk; the great belly that has naturally cleaved to expose the heartwood. Round the back, a trail of smoothed, shining bark leads into its boughs. This path, carved out by the hundreds of hands and feet that have clambered up into its limbs, is mostly used today as a photographic opportunity or to ignite a childhood sense of wonder, but local legend suggests it may once have saved the lives of innocent men and women.
The notorious 17th-century witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins lived nearby and made his name torturing those accused of witchcraft to extort false confessions, leading to the deaths of hundreds. Village folklore suggests some of the accused sought refuge in Old Knobbley, desperately scrambling up its trunk to escape Hopkins and his men. In truth, this is fairly unlikely, but the stories that we weave about trees help us to build connections with them. Trees are our protectors, healers and compasses. We find solace in their branches; their stoicism brings us peace in times of strife, and it is comforting to think of the eccentric Old Knobbley offering sanctuary to those at their most desperate.
Today it offers a different kind of refuge – a home for fungi, invertebrates and birds. And for us, it offers a link to our past and the chance to connect with one of nature’s greats.
• Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary
