A 222-YEAR-OLD oak tree from Blenheim Palace will live on after being turned into a symbol of environmental awareness.

In January last year, as part of the Woodstock stately home’s OneOak project, 250 schoolchildren watched the mighty tree being toppled.

Some of the wood from the 80ft-tall tree was made into a bench by students at Rycotewood Furniture Centre, part of Oxford & Cherwell Valley College.

It has been presented to Willowcroft Community School in Didcot, where pupils were involved in designing the bench, for future generations to enjoy.

And they left their mark at the site of the former tree by planting 250 oak seeds to create new woodland.

Willowcroft headteacher Jon Gray said: “This will provide a talking point for the school for a long time to come, perhaps even for another 222 years.”

Year Five pupil Amelia Sutton, 10, said: “I thought it was a bit sad to see the tree come down.

“But the bench is really nice and I liked to see how it was made.”

Fellow pupil Luke Dix, nine, said: “I have enjoyed the project, seeing the tree cut down was kind of good and kind of bad. They needed more space for more trees, so that was good, but it was bad for it to be cut down. The bench is really cool – it’s different sizes so everyone can sit on it.”

Luke Nobes, 10, said: “I liked seeing the tree cut down, but it was quite upsetting because we saw it before it was cut down. The bench is good, it looks completely different. My favourite bit was planting the trees.”

The OneOak project at Blenheim Palace was run by woodland charity the Sylva Foundation in Little Wittenham, near Didcot.