Wanstead Park

The Repton Oak, Reservoir Wood

The Repton Oak in February 2002 - the photograph gives some idea of the many-stemmed development of the tree, but also shows freshly hewn branches as the tree is suffering from stress.

The Repton Oak is situated in Reservoir Wood, close to Wanstead Park. One of the Park's finest trees and is one of the Park's sessile oaks Quercus petraea. It is said to have been planted in about 1815 under the guidance of Humphry Repton (see below). The technique was to plant several small trees together in the same hole, so that eventually the trunks fused together. A number of other possible examples of this technique can be found in Wanstead Park, but the Repton Oak is the finest. Something like 9 fused trunks can be counted. The tree is almost impossible to miss if the main track from Blake Hall Road eastwards through the length of the wood is taken. Unfortunately in 2000 the oak lost a number of its major spreading branches. A barrier of cut undergrowth was placed by the Conservators of Epping Forest in an effort to divert people away from the tree and thus to prevent stress to the root system. By early 2002 more of its lower branches had to be cut away, as the above photograph shows.

Humphry Repton was a landscape gardener, born in Bury St.Edmunds in 1752. He was the successor to Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Following losses of two business ventures he became a landscape gardener using the knowledge of his hobby, botany. For the last 45 years of his life he lived in Romford. He died in 1818.