WESTMINSTER HALL, at the entrance to the Houses of Parliament, was built in 1097. A new hammerbeam roof, make of oak, was added in 1393.
By 1913 some of the oak timbers needed to be replaced. But due largely to the construction of the English fleet required to fight the Spanish Armada, oak was increasingly hard to find.
Sir George Couthorpe, the MP for Rye, heard about the restoration and pointed out that his ancestors had provided the original oak timbers in 1393. When they were cut down new trees were planted. Now, 500 years later, they were ready to be used.
After they were felled in 1913, new oak trees were planted.
