This year’s Tree of the Year award goes to a stunning 1,000 year old oak in Liverpool. The Woodland Trust has decided that Allerton Oak in Calderstones Park will now represent the UK in a European competition. One of the other entries in the competition was a local tree, a 200 year old sycamore growing on the wall of Colchester Castle.

Allerton Oak has an interesting history and in medieval times it is believed to have been the meeting place for the local court. A large crack down its side was supposedly created by the Lottie Sleigh, a ship carrying 11 tonnes of gunpowder that exploded while moored in the Mersey nearby in 1864.

During the second world war, leaves from the tree were sent with letters to local soldiers on the frontline to remind them of home.