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Episode details

Radio 4,5 mins

Why are oak trees so important to us?

PM

Available for over a year

Recently vandals attacked a thousand-year old Oak tree in Sherwood Forest - believed to be where Robin Hood sheltered with his Merry Men. The damage was perhaps all the more shocking because the oak has long served as a symbol of national identity, of strength and resilience, even through the hardest times. As PM continues our "Year of the Tree" series, Caroline Wyatt speaks to Dr James Canton - author of the Oak Papers. It's a book inspired by the two years he spent studying the Honywood Oak in Essex, a solitary tree that's witnessed eight hundred years of human life. (Photo: Oak Tree (Credit: BBC)

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