THE KEDLESTON TREE’S 11 RIVALS

■■The Escley Oak, Herefordshire, thought to be at least 400-500 years old, standing alone in a meadow and which looks like two separate trees grown together due to the large hollow in its trunk.

■■The Flitton Oak, in Devon, which is around 700 years old, splays out eight enormous limbs dripping with moss and lichen, and has a rescue plan to stop it being smothered by younger trees.

■■Holly on the Hill, Hawnby, north Yorkshire, which stands out in the landscape, is an outgrown coppice, with a trunk that is a collection of stems that have fused and grown together. It could have been there since the late 19th century.

■■The Burnbanks Oak, Haweswater, Cumbria, a striking sessile oak which is growing in a pocket of ancient woodland, whose centre is completely hollow with its trunk housing lichens, ferns and mosses and providing shelter for wildlife.

■■Hedgerow Hawthorn, Colton, Cumbria, a gnarled and windswept tree which forms part of a small line of hawthorns that mark the site of a former land boundary, and is likely to be between 170 and 200 years old.

■■The ‘12 Apostles’ Lime, Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire, which is the largest of an avenue of 12 limes planted at St James’ Churchyard to represent the 12 apostles – and which could be one of the original trees planted around 1770.

■■Kilbroney Oak, Kilbroney Park, County Down, Northern Ireland, which is a sessile oak in the landscape that is believed to have been the inspiration for the fantasy world of CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and which is believed to be more than 300 years old.

■■The Portal Tree, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland, is a rowan – which feature heavily in folklore – growing in the landscaped grounds of Mavisbank House, where it has bent over to form a full archway, suggesting a portal to another world.

■■The Rolls of Monmouth Oak, Monmouthshire, Wales, is the largest on the Great Oaks golf course on the Rolls of Monmouth Estate, which provides an important haven for wildlife and which is likely to be more than 500 years old.

■■Langley Park Chestnut, Langley Park House, Scotland, which is thought to be as old – or much older – than the original 18th century Langley Park House in whose grounds it grows. It has a girth of 7.81 metres and huge branches which grow around the main trunk like a fallen crown.

■■Waverley Abbey Yew, Farnham, Surrey, whose roots grow into and around the ruins of the abbey, which was dismantled after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. Its age is unknown but cannot be more than 480 years old.