The Gospel Oak was a

veteran tree A veteran tree is one that has ancient features but not the great age of an ancient tree, and is a tree of great cultural, landscape, or biodiversity value due to its ecological and habitat features. Definition Ancient trees exist in many forms a ...

Polstead Polstead is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. The village lies northeast of Nayland, southwest of Hadleigh and north of Colchester. It is situated on a small tributary stream of the River Stour. In 20 ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. The tree is associated with

Saint Cedd In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...

, who reputedly planted it or preached beneath it. The

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

tree is thought to have been named for its association with an annual church service, reputedly held beneath it for more than a millennium, and the tree is said to have been the oldest in the county when it collapsed in November 1953. A descendant grows nearby and has since been used as the site for the annual service.

Association with Saint Cedd

The tree is associated with

(died 664 AD), a Northumbrian from the

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

monastery who proselytised in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

and

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

. The Gospel Oak is thought to date from around this time and legend holds that Cedd and his monks preached from beneath the tree in the years before the village's St Mary's Church was built. Other legends state that the tree was planted by Cedd or one of his followers. The tree is one of two associated with Cedd, the other is the "Great Oak" at

Great Yeldham Great Yeldham is a village in north Essex, England, about from the Suffolk border. It is situated along the main A1017 road (formerly A604) between Braintree and Haverhill. History Great Yeldham contains the ''Great Oak'', an old preserve ...

, Essex – which lay within Cedd's diocese as bishop of the

East Saxons The Kingdom of the East Saxons (; ), referred to as the Kingdom of Essex , was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex ...

. It has been claimed that the Gospel Oak has been the venue for an annual service for more than a

millennium A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

. It is thought this ceremony is a survival of the Rogationtide tradition of

beating the bounds Beating the bounds or perambulating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in parts of England, Wales, and the New England region of the United States, which involves swatting local landmarks with branches to maintain a shared mental map o ...

in which a

procession A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner. History Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...

, led by the

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

, would mark the limits of parish lands, and ask God for good weather and a bountiful harvest. Such processions often paused under an ancient tree in the parish, where the priest would read a sermon from the

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

. As a result these trees became known as "gospel trees". It is known that an annual service has been held at the tree in the first week of August since 3 August 1902, when it was held by the Reverend Francis John Eld.

Later history

The tree was described as the oldest in England in 1903, though this is unlikely given the ages of other known trees. It is, however, thought to have been the oldest tree in Suffolk at around 1,300 years old. It was later incorporated into the grounds of Polstead Hall, visible from the churchyard, and by 1900 stood at in circumference. It collapsed in November 1953, and as of 2010, its remains were visible near the village war memorial. A naturally seeded

sapling In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only pla ...

from the tree grows nearby, and has become the new spot for the annual church service, now held every first Sunday of August since the loss of the original tree.

References

{{coords, 52.0057, 0.8956, display=title Individual oak trees Individual trees in England Polstead 1950s individual tree deaths