An oak tree in Rutland that was struck by a World War II Lancaster bomber has been shortlisted for this year’s UK Tree of the Year award, alongside nine other trees chosen for surviving extraordinary events across centuries of British history. The Woodland Trust, the charity behind the annual competition, built this year’s theme around the idea of against the odds, celebrating rare, ancient or at-risk trees that have endured everything from plane crashes to cannonballs. Members of the public can now vote for their favourite among the shortlisted trees, with the winner set to be announced later this year.
How the Bomber Oak earned its place on the shortlist
According to the Woodland Trust’s official announcement of this year’s shortlist, the 180-year-old oak stands on a family farm in Rutland and still carries visible signs of its wartime encounter, including a slight dip in its canopy and twisted, misshapen central branches. On 26 April 1945, a Lancaster bomber returning prisoners of war from Germany to England struck the top of the tree, slicing it off, before the aircraft managed to fly on for a few more miles and crash, killing all but two of the seven men on board. The tree recovered from the collision, and decades later survived a second threat when a water company planning to install pipes through the field was successfully opposed by local objections, including from the family that has owned the farm for generations.
A yew that survived a Civil War cannonball
Among the other nominees is the Crowhurst Yew in East Sussex, believed to be as old as 4,000 years and notable for surviving a direct hit from a cannonball during the seventeenth-century English Civil War. According to the Woodland Trust, villagers discovered the cannonball embedded in the trunk in 1820 while hollowing out the tree to create a parish meeting room complete with a door, tables and chairs. The improvised room’s roof later collapsed during a violent storm in 1845, yet the tree survived that as well and still stands today in St George’s churchyard in Crowhurst.
Trees that defied cliffs, church towers and lightning
The shortlist also includes a downy birch clinging to a cliff edge in County Durham and a yew that has grown at the top of a church tower overlooking Culmstock village in Devon for roughly two hundred years. In Dumfries and Galloway, the Earlstoun Lightning Oak earned its place after surviving a direct lightning strike, while the Preston Twin in Brighton, likely the world’s oldest English elm, has lived through four centuries despite Dutch elm disease, a fungal infection that killed a similarly aged elm standing nearby.
A Welsh oak and a public wildcard entry
Beyond the eight trees selected by an expert panel, two additional entries were chosen directly by public nomination as wildcard picks. According to coverage from Nation. Cymru, one of these is the Wales Coast Path Oak on the Ynys hir nature reserve in Ceredigion, which has withstood storms, droughts and livestock grazing while offering shade and shelter to walkers along the long-distance coastal route. The other public wildcard is the Balloch Castle ash, which stands on the lawn of the semi-derelict Balloch Castle beside Loch Lomond.
Why the Woodland Trust runs this competition each year
May Chemais, who runs the Ancient Tree Inventory at the Woodland Trust, said the shortlist demonstrates how trees can be both tough and flexible, noting that species like yew are capable of restructuring themselves internally in order to keep living. Actor and nature podcaster David Oakes, a Woodland Trust ambassador, added that while most living things survive danger by fleeing, a tree rooted permanently to one spot has no such option, and instead has perfected the art of simply weathering whatever comes its way.
How the public can take part in choosing a winner
Voting for this year’s Tree of the Year is open to the public via the Woodland Trust’s website and remains open until late September, with the winning tree to be announced in early autumn. The competition has run in the UK since the Woodland Trust began coordinating national entries in 2014, with winning trees subsequently entered into the wider European Tree of the Year competition. Each shortlisted tree in this year’s contest carries its own distinct story of survival, offering a reminder that some of the country’s most remarkable natural landmarks are also its most quietly resilient.
