A 13-metre-long table made from the wood of a 5,000-year-old black oak tree is to be unveiled at Ely Cathedral this month in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Craftsmen set about creating a “table for the nation” after a after a Cambridgeshire farmer discovered the rare ancient tree buried in a field while ploughing in 2012.

After using an excavator to remove the six-tonne fossilised tree, the team at the Fenland Black Oak Project dried out the wood using a 15-metre dehumidifying kiln to extract 397 gallons of water over nine months.

Once dry, the wood could be cut by the team of specialists into 10 sequential planks, preserving its full length. Work on the tabletop began in 2019 with a new technique developed

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