The Collingwood Oaks

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1- 8 1s turn RH, cast (2s step up). 1s Petronella turn into lines of 3 across (1L between 2s, 1M between 3s). All set
9-16 1L+2M+3M also 1M+2L+3L dance RH across. 1s turn LH to 2nd place own sides and all set
17-24 1s followed by 2s dance down, cast up round 3s, dance up to top and 1s cast to face 1st corners while 2s end in 1st place
25-32 1s dance Corner pass and turn with 1st corners, dance Corner pass and turn with 2nd corners. 1s pass RSh to 2nd place own sides

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

The Collingwood Oaks - Full Size And Key To Symbols

Dance Instruction Videos

Dance Information

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (26 September 1748 - 7 March 1810) was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.

Dudley Pope relates an aspect of Collingwood at the beginning of chapter three of his Life in Nelson's Navy:
"Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, later to become an admiral and Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, had his home at Morpeth, in Northumberland, and when he was there on half pay or on leave he loved to walk over the hills with his dog Bounce. He always started off with a handful of acorns in his pockets, and as he walked he would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for an oak tree to grow. Some of the oaks he planted are probably still growing more than a century and a half later ready to be cut to build ships of the line at a time when nuclear submarines are patrolling the seas, because Collingwood's purpose was to make sure that the Navy would never want for oaks to build the fighting ships upon which the country's safety depended."

Oak trees were also planted by his wife, Sarah, at Hethpool in 1815, according to his wishes, to provide timber for future warships.

These oak trees became known as The Collingwood Oaks.

Collingwood died in 1810 en route home to England, and never saw the trees. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral close to Nelson.

The Collingwood Oaks are immortalized in The Song Of The Oak - Song, written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936).

The Song Of The Oak Song - Information Video

Hethpoolbell Wood
The Oak Trees On The Bell Are Known As The Collingwood Oaks

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