I was very lucky, back in the summer of 2019, to have the opportunity to help build the Fenland Black Oak Project. Back in 2012, a huge 14m bole of bog oak was turned over in a farmer’s field, in Methwold Fen. Over the course of about a decade, Hamish Low — with the aid of dozens of craftspeople, inspired by his vision — turned the log into a single plank length table.
The more you understand about timber and trees, the closer to impossible the project seems. Everything from the survival of the bole — buried for almost five millennia — to the seasoning of the saturated planks, to the drop leaves that function despite the table’s winding river joints, to the endless good will required to get the work done, seems entirely prohibitive.
After ten years in the planning and the making, the Fenland Black Oak Project was unveiled at Ely Cathedral in May 2022.
