The Oak at the Old Tower

The tower dates from about 1400 and the oak from about 1855, which is a gap of four and a half centuries between two things standing side by side. The Oude Toren at Stiphout is a church tower without its church, which is a common enough sight in this country and always means the same thing: the nave was replaced or demolished and the tower, being solid and expensive to remove and usually owned separately, stayed. What is left is a tall brick object standing alone with a graveyard around it. The oak came far later. It is banded 1850 to 1860 and at roughly 170 years it is at about a third of its likely span, which means that if it is left alone it will eventually catch up on the tower in a way nothing else here will. That is the reason to come, and it is worth stating plainly rather than dressing up. Two hundred years from now a visitor will find a tower from 1400 and an oak from 1855, and the difference between them will look far smaller than it does today. Go in winter, when the bare frame reads against the brick.