Rochester Cathedral is currently displaying the Table for the Nation, a 43ft-long table, which was crafted from a 5000-year-old Fenland black oak in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Accompanying the table is information regarding the history of black oak (or bog oak), and the 10-year project to create the table.
As well as allowing the public the opportunity to view and learn about this table, the cathedral and trustees of the Fenland Black Oak Charitable Trust want the table, which can seat up to 50 people, to be used. With this in mind, Gallery Direct, which is based less than 20 miles from Rochester, offered to donate 50 chairs to the cathedral.
MD Peter Delaney comments: “We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and so when we heard the jubilee table was going to reside at Rochester Cathedral for a year, we felt there was a synergy to giving them 50 chairs to use with the table, as well as elsewhere in the cathedral. In addition, with the excitement around King Charles III’s coronation, we wanted to offer seating fit for a ‘king’s banquet’.”
The 50 chairs were hand upholstered at Gallery’s Wiltshire manufacturing site and delivered to the cathedral in April.
The table will be in Rochester Cathedral until 1st March 2024.
Pictured: the Fenland black oak table, reproduced with kind permission of the Fenland Black Oak CIO
