NEWS! This tree now has its own group Facebook...just search for 'oak'...
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=112373675444220
The Oak at the Gate of the Dead, Castle Mill Chirk. On the site of the Battle of Crogen 1165. Also on Offas Dyke path. Just 300 metres from Chirk castle. This ancient Oak is beleived to be over 900 years old andis recorded on the ancient tree hunt (ath) website here...
http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/recording/tree.htm?tree=4F16A512-B5…
it is tree no. 195 in the nationwide projects database.
It has featured on BBC Countryfile, BBC Midland news, BBC Wales tv & radio and BBC Radio Shropshire in recent years.
Here is local lady Heather telling me of the trees folklore when I met her back in 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AnB6Cpo71Y
Here is the tree just days before it spilt in two in Feb. 2010. A massively significant event in the trees 900 years of history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pDMWZjFzEo
The tree has now become almost a symbol of the Battle of Crogen. This piece of welsh history researched by Mark Williams and Deryn Poppitt has now been made into a film by Chester based film co. Take 27 ltd. The film premiere was shown on the 4th Feb. 2011 at The Wrexham Histories Festival.
See here when the plaque commemerating the battle was unveiled in March 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhew0ZsKqvo