Seasons1 of 4
Somebody measured this oak at four metres round in 1936. Somebody measured it again around 2009 and got 5.55. Those seventy-odd years of growth are the hardest evidence anyone has about its age, and they sit awkwardly beside the local story, which is that the tree was planted after the Battle of Crecy in 1346 and is therefore six centuries old. The dendrologist who took the later measurement, having had his hands on the trunk, thinks it is somewhat younger than that. He offers no replacement figure. Both readings stand here unreconciled. Either way it is the largest oak in the Foret de Crecy, 27 metres tall, in a state forest known less for its timber than for the battle that took its name in 1346. The oaks around it are the reason to come. The forestry office has signed a circuit des vieux chenes linking twenty or more named trees, each with a panel, and this one is the biggest on the route. It stands at the northern edge of the forest, directly opposite the forester's lodge at Caumartin, which is about as findable as a tree in a wood ever gets. Two photographs taken from the same spot fourteen years apart, in 2007 and in 2021, show the same full crown with no dead wood in it. Whatever its age, it was standing and healthy the last time anyone photographed it.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Forêt domaniale de Crécy, opposite the Maison forestière de Caumartin, 80150 Crécy-en-Ponthieu, Somme, France
You can recognise it by being the largest oak in the forest, 5.55 metres round and 27 metres tall. It stands at the northern edge opposite the Maison forestiere de Caumartin, on the signed circuit des vieux chenes.
Free, public. Stands in the state-owned Forêt domaniale de Crécy (ONF-managed), on the signed 'circuit des vieux chênes' walking route, at the forest's northern edge directly opposite the Caumartin forester's lodge. Since Nov 2019 the ONF has closed some forest roads to private vehicles near Forest-Montiers (local controversy over the closure), but the tree itself is reached on foot from marked parking regardless.
No direct public transport into the forest; nearest town Crécy-en-Ponthieu is about 5 km away. A car is the practical way in, with roadside/forest parking near the Caumartin lodge, then a short walk on the marked trail.
In fruit
September to October: acorns drop, and a good mast year buries the ground in them
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.