The Table
Now in residency at Lichfield Cathedral. A spectacular 13 metre long ‘Table for the Nation’ was created from a section of the nation’s most significant tree, a gigantic 5000 year old Fenland Black Oak.
‘A Table for the Nation’
at Lincoln Cathedral
Y O U R T A B L E A W A I T S
You can experience ‘A Table for the Nation’ at Lichfield Cathedral, where it is in residency until May 2026. The table is accompanied by an insightful exhibition which details the history of the project, Black Oak and our ancient high forests.
Many of the craftspeople who made the table feel an affinity with the work ethic of the people who built Lichfield Cathedral. We believe this results in a similar aesthetic as both the Cathedral and the table, in their own ways, evoke a sense of wonder.
We very much look forward to seeing how the local community embrace and find uses and activities for the table for the nation at Lichfield Cathedral.
Lichfield is a Cathedral City located in Staffordshire and situated 18 miles south-east of Stafford and is easily accessed by car and public transport. Please visit Lichfield Cathedral website for further information.
The Fenland Black Oak Table at Lichfield Cathedral
“At the heart of every church, Lichfield Cathedral included, stands a table. It’s a place of meeting, of hospitality, of being fed at Holy Communion with, ‘the living bread in whom all our hungers are satisfied’. It’s a constant reminder that God calls us to live in communion with him and with one another, building inclusive and welcoming communities from which no-one is excluded. It’s a reminder of God’s abundant generosity towards us, and how in response to that generous love, we’re to go out and care for our world, seeking to give rather than expecting to receive.
The Fenland Black Oak Table made from a 5,000 year old tree reminds us of the wonder of God’s creation and the future of our fragile world, together with our responsibility to care for, and conserve, it for future generations. And as we reflect on the skill of those who have created such a stunningly beautiful table we can be gently challenged to consider the impact our lives, our actions, and the right use of our God-given gifts, might have on those around us.
The Fenland Black Oak Table will stand in our Cathedral as a constant reminder of all of this, and as a meeting place for feasting, conversation and gentle challenge. We hope that you will find your place at the table, for Lichfield Cathedral is your cathedral, my cathedral, our cathedral – and you are always welcome here.”
—The Right Reverend Jan McFarlane, Dean of Lichfield
Scale and majesty
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The story begins 5000 years ago when an incredible ancient high forest of massive oak trees once stood deep within the Fenland Basin of East Anglia. Over time, and with a rise in sea levels, these spectacularly tall trees fell into the silt of the flooded forest floor. There they lay, unseen and undisturbed, preserved in the peat for five millennia. Until now...
During routine cultivations in the spring of 2012 on a farm in the Wissington Fens of south-west Norfolk, a 13.2 metre section of one of the greatest of these buried giants was unearthed.
This magnificent tree represented the greatest creative opportunity to give a unique insight into the scale and majesty of the ancient high forests growing 5000 years ago.
Against all odds, specialist craftspeople successfully milled and dried this remarkable discovery, preserving it at full length and in perpetuity.
Discovered in the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, it is now known as the ‘Jubilee Oak’. This is one of Britain’s most important oak trees—not just for its vast size and ancient provenance, but for the work of art now fashioned from it.
The planks from the Jubilee Oak have been used to create a unique artefact to form part of our national heritage—‘A Table for the Nation’.
An official inscription carved at one end of the Fenland Black Oak Table acknowledges the tree’s discovery in 2012, in commemoration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee year. At the opposite end, a second inscription acknowledges the table’s completion in 2022, in commemoration of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee year.
Following on from its initial residency at Ely Cathedral the Fenland Black Oak Table continues its tour of the country.
The table is currently at Lichfield Cathedral where it will be on public display until May 2026.
A selection of photos of the table’s previous residencies at Ely Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral