Where to find bog oak

Laying deep under water and deprived of oxygen, the wood starts to fossilise. Minerals and iron in the water react with tannins in the wood, and the wood turns gradually from golden-brown to completely black, becoming much harder than the original oak. The colour of bog oak generally varies throughout the trunk, with the outer part being a dense black colour as it has had more exposure to the minerals and iron, whilst the inner parts fade from dense black to light brown as the level of exposure reduces.

The journey of this wonderful wood began when a rise in sea level caused the ancient high forests of the area to flood.

Then, when the trees died they fell into the waterlogged silt and were buried. These semi-fossilised oak trees are now being discovered, as the Fenland is cultivated and the trees emerge from the peat. Once uncovered and exposed to the elements, bog oak is extremely fragile and needs to be carefully and expertly extracted from the bog, cut into planks and slowly dried out. The picture above shows a few planks of bog oak from English Hardwoods sawmill , that have been dried and are waiting to be turned into something to treasure.

Now you can see how the intense dark to light colours of these planks of Bog Oak provide fantastic opportunities for stunning visual impact. The dense blackness of Bog Oak is also particularly attractive when used as a contrast, in combination with other native hardwoods. The Great Fen Information Point at New Decoy Farm has a carpark which is surrounded by pieces of bog oak that were unearthed during the construction.

Another very good place is on Holme Fen, where you can see pieces of bog oak still lying where they fell thousands of years ago. From the road running past Holme Post, take either of the paths north to the next dyke that runs roughly east-west, parallel to the road. That dyke that has been recently cleared out and, looking down at its sides, you can see a layer of about 2 or 3m of peat with a clear border where the underlying Jurassic Clay begins.

At many places along the dyke the ends of tree trunks can be seen. It is a very clear example showing the end of the time of the forest and the coming of the fen wetlands.

Arable fields regularly had to be cleared of bog oaks, with the trunks often piled up in so called clearance cairns. Below there is silent archive footage from decades ago showing the process of clearing bog oak, probably on Middle Farm. Have you ever wondered what it was like to live during the Second World War in a small fen village? A special thanks to Steve Earis for providing the wood sample of this wood species. Related Species:. Related Articles:. Visit intagram. Never heard of this before; do you know the moisture content of the wood?

Unforunately, in about ten years or so these hard worn down from constant playing, so that the surface of the keys had become quite rough and sinewy to the touch. So these keys were replaced with an exotic blackwood. I was an organ student at UO You can help support the site by buying one of these resources, designed and published by The Wood Database.

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