snip

Looks like a rather wind-blasted oak tree, doesn't it?

-++++ Sacha, Thank you for a VERY prompt reply.
My tree knowledge is abysmal, but your suggestion does "look" right to
me.
It never prospered in 45 years, always an uneven silhouette and
scraggly branches --- maybe the din and smoke of a half-century of
stock cars have hindered it ----!
David Kipling
BC, Canada
..
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'