Lincoln Cathedral to host jubilee table made from 5,000-year-old tree

The table made from the wood of a 5,000-year-old oak tree was first displayed at Ely Cathedral

A 13m (43ft) long table made from a 5,000-year-old oak tree is to be installed in Lincoln Cathedral on St George's day.

The table, created from a black oak tree found buried and preserved in a field in Norfolk in 2012, will go on display on 24 April.

It is part of the cathedral's year-long celebration of "sustainability, communities and the environment".

Organisers said it would allow visitors to come together.

Samantha Mellows, director of visitor experience and enterprise at Lincoln Cathedral, described the table, known as 'Table for the Nation', as being "unique and inspiring".

"Here in the Cathedral we hold communion every day - a time where people gather as one, and share in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine, as we have done for generations.

"The Table for the Nation is a celebration of the skilled craft people that have created it, a tangible piece of ancient history that visitors can touch, and an invitation for everyone to come together and spend time with others.

"I hope that over the next 12 months, many people will come together around the table to share food, stories, conversations and experiences, and that we will all come away enriched by what we have learned, the people that we have met and the sense of community that we have created."

The trunk of a giant Fenland black oak, or bog oak, was found buried in farmland at Methwold Hythe, near Downham Market, in 2012

Thousands of years ago the East Anglian Fens were densely forested by large oak trees which, due to rising seas, fell into the silt of the flooded forest floor and were preserved in the peat.

In 2012, the trunk of a giant Fenland black oak, or bog oak, was found buried in farmland at Methwold Hythe, near Downham Market, Norfolk - during the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. It has since become known as the Jubilee Oak.

A team of privately-funded carpenters created the table as part of the Fenland Black Oak Project.

It first went on display at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire in 2022.

Lincoln Cathedral hopes the table will bring visitors together