Look at this beautiful oak table. Each wooden plank in the tabletop is 44 feet long! Vladimir Putin would be so envious.
This is a table like no other in the world. We know that Britain's peat bogs are full of prehistoric treasures preserved underneath. In 2012, a preserved oak tree trunk was discovered in a peat bog in Cambridgeshire. At 44 feet long, it is the longest oak trunk ever retrieved from such bogs, and it is only a portion of the original tree! Unearthed after 5,000 years, what would they do with this tree? The Fenland Black Oak Project was launched, with a goal that a massive table would be made from the bog oak's beautiful wood, blackened by thousands of years soaking in peat. The planks were carefully cut, then dried in a kiln that had to be specially built for the project. It took nine months to extract 1.8 tons of water from the planks. The estimated 2013 completion date for the project had to be abandoned, but earlier this year, ‘A Table for the Nation’ was installed in Ely Cathedral so people can see it. Read the story of the magnificent Fenland bog oak table at The History Blog. -via Strange Company