Green campaigner Laurel Spooner is offering a cash prize for the person or people who find the oldest oak tree in Colchester. There’s still time to join in the fun as the competition doesn’t close until March 20.

WE already have magnificent contenders for the title of 'champion oak' within the Colchester borough.

The competition is open until March 20, so, if you are interested, fetch your coat, a ball of string and a tape measure.

Head for the great outdoors, find that tree and win the £40 prize.

All you need do is measure the circumference of the tree you find on your wanderings using the Woodland Trust’s Oak Age Estimator, which you will find on their website.

Before introducing you to some of the entries, let me introduce an ancient survivor - heavily damaged, decaying but alive.

Peter Fremlin photographed parents Maria and David measuring the hollowed out and split open trunk.

This damage may have been caused by a lightning strike.

The bolt shoots down the tree to dissipate into the earth and boils the sap, sometimes blowing the bark right off.

This tree is on the Essex University campus, where there are a number of similar old characters.

However, for our competition, the oak must be on public land.

The Cranston family had a wonderful time measuring up a massive oak along the path where they walk their dog

The Cranston family had a wonderful time measuring up a massive oak along the path where they walk their dog

Moving on to eligible candidates, Paul Stickland found an oak growing close to the Fingringhoe Road with eight arms - an upside down octopus of a tree and perfect for a local Robin Hood.

David Waterman found an impressive oak near Bluebottle Grove, in the area of the Iron Age Lexden Earthworks.

His measurement indicates there must be at least 350 tree rings beneath the bark.

The Cranston family had a wonderful time measuring up a massive oak along the path where they walk their dog.

It must have been a scratchy process, I imagine, thanks to the holly bush behind it.

There is plenty of time left before March 20 so if you know of a huge oak please send us a picture and preferably one of you as well.

Tell us the measurements and its whereabouts by emailing matt.plummer@newsquest.co.uk

Families have told me they have been measuring trees by linking arms, which meant they ended up hugging the trunk.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard: Peter Fremlin photographed parents Maria and David measuring the hollowed out and split open trunk of a tree at Essex University

Peter Fremlin photographed parents Maria and David measuring the hollowed out and split open trunk of a tree at Essex University

This would be quite normal for an Icelander.

In fact, at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, the Icelandic Forestry Service produced videos encouraging people to hug trees to help themselves not feel isolated and afraid.

A daily five-minute hug was recommended as the minimum required to bond with the tree and feel the love.

During the last year, people have been grateful for their gardens as never before and for green spaces for exercise.

Studies in the 1980s showed patients in beds with a view of greenery recovered faster and required less painkillers after surgery than those with buildings.

This led to hospital design including as many courtyards as possible.

We understand the physiology of stress, fear, contentment and pleasure from research over the last 20 years and levels of key chemicals improve mental health when people have access to open natural areas.

A bench by a small lawn in a small park with traffic noise is not enough.

This is a hot issue locally as campaigners fight to prevent Middlewick Ranges, known as The Wick, from becoming another housing estate.

People are fighting for much more than somewhere to walk the dog.

To understand ourselves as humans must experience being a part OF nature rather than set apart FROM it.

High Woods Country Park, created 34 years ago in 1987, has provided that for people on the north side of Colchester, including all those who will move into the new housing estates being built to the north as you read this.

We need the vision to create another country park for the south of Colchester.

Maybe The Wick is the ideal place?

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