8. The Chained Oak

The chained oak, located in England, is an old tree that’s been wrapped in chains – supposedly to prevent its branches from falling. The details of the story behind this differ from source to source, but all point towards the 15 th Earl of Shrewsbury’s belief in a curse in 1821. It’s said that, on his way home one night, the earl came across an old woman (some say an old man) who asked him for money. The earl not so politely refused the request. Angry, the old woman cursed him, saying, “For every branch that falls from the old oak tree, a member of your family will die.” The earl did not take this threat seriously. However, there was a storm that night and one of the old oak’s branches fell. Later that same night, one of the earl’s family members died mysteriously. Now convinced that the curse was real, the earl ordered the oak’s branches to be chained to prevent more from ever falling. To this day, the old oak remains in chains. More mysterious is the stone steps leading up to it – the steps must have been no small effort to build, but for what purpose? If the story of the curse is not true, why, then, was the oak chained? The logical answer is that perhaps the oak was splitting or needed support, and the chains were introduced in an attempt to support it. However, the oak’s condition at the time of chaining is unclear. What I do know is that much of the tree has now disintegrated, partly due to some of the chains being so old. In 2007, one chain that was vital to the oak’s integrity was so badly rusted that it finally broke, resulting in a large part of the oak collapsing – the earl’s descendants informed media that no one died because of it!