Bushcraft UK is encouraging people to record ancient trees as part of The Ancient Tree  Hunt.

Clive Anderson has launched the national project, as The Woodland Trust appeals for people to register their findings at a special website they have set up.

“We’re asking people to look out for and record trees which are particularly old, fat and gnarled,” says Woodland Trust president, Clive Anderson, “so obviously I am just the person to get this message across. The sort of size we are after is a tree, perhaps an oak, which is so big that it would take you and at least two or more friends to hug it all the way around, finger tip to finger tip. Perhaps you pass a great old tree every day, it probably has a great story. We’d love you to go online and tell us about it.”

The trust, UK's leading woodland conservation charity, says "The Ancient Tree Hunt is a five-year project, led by the Woodland Trust in partnership with the Ancient Tree Forum and the Tree Register of the British Isles."

William the Conqueror is responsible for much of the amazing legacy of ancient trees in the UK because of the Royal Hunting Forests he established after 1066.

The trust also said that trees are part of British culture.  Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory was built from over 6,000 oaks and English and Welsh archers using yew and ash longbows helped Henry V win the battle of Agincourt.