Europe's largest collection of ancient oak trees found in Blenheim Palace grounds

And Finally
Wednesday 2 March 2016 at 10:59pm

A thousand-year old secret has been discovered lurking in the grounds of the historic Blenheim Palace.

On grounds hunted by Henry I, once owned by the Duke of Wellington and the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the greatest collection of ancient oak trees in Europe lies.

One of the trees has a circumference of around 9 metres (29ft), putting its age at roughly 920 years.

"There's no other site in England that has so many of these very big oaks in one place... by and large the place has been unaltered since the Middle Ages," Botanist Aljos Farjon said.

ITV News' Sally Lockwood reports: