On Monday Lichfield Cathedral had the honour of receiving a visit from a really special guest – His Majesty King Charles III.
While on the cathedral the King met with quite a lot of volunteers and community groups, and learned concerning the “Table for the Nation” – a 13 metre long table constructed from 5,000-year-old black oak.
The oak originates, in keeping with the project, in East Anglia where “an incredible high forest of gigantic oak trees once stood, deep throughout the Fenland Basin of ancient East Anglia”.
“Over time, and with an increase in sea levels, these spectacular trees fell into the silt of the flooded forest floor. There they lay unseen and undisturbed, preserved within the peat for five millennia,” the cathedral said.
The oaks were discovered in 2012 during routine farming work in Norfolk. The specimen used to make the table was milled after which dried before being was planks of wood that were used to create the Table for the Nation, currently being housed at Lichfield Cathedral.
King Charles also heard a performance from Lichfield Cathedral Choir and a music outreach programme, and heard how the cathedral is working to coach the subsequent generation of heritage craftsmen and stonemasons.
The Rt Rev Jan McFarlane, Dean of Lichfield said, “We were thrilled to welcome His Majesty the King 14 years after the late Queen Elizabeth II, visited us.
“We are so pleased with our magnificent cathedral and city and it means an awesome deal to everyone to find a way to indicate the King all that is occurring in our community.
“The cathedral is hosting the awe inspiring Fenland Black Oak Table this 12 months, and we gathered around it groups which represent all that’s creative in our city and county, in addition to demonstrating how we’re encouraging heritage crafts with our trainee stonemasons, and inspiring young people through our music outreach programme.”
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