"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article . com,
barnsley writes:
|
| 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 ----!

No, no, that's not it. That IS what oaks look like, unless bred for
timber. They are knobbly, ragged trees, and start getting stag-headed
(which that hadn't done yet) about a 1/3 through their lifetime. See
Oliver Rackham on that.

Looks like an oak to me. Ouite a good example - many are not quite as full
as that - not so many branches. It's possible that one was covered in ivy.

Short cut to your photo here..

http://www.oldstox.com/images/Gateley64.jpg

It looks like the tree might still be there....

http://www.v8hotstox.com/nir.html