DO you know Billy Wilkins? Probably not, but you really ought to make his – or, more accurately, its – acquaintance.

Because Billy Wilkins is one of The Great Trees of Dorset finally receiving the recognition they deserve, with the launch of a book that brings together, for the first time, the most venerable of the county’s specimens.

Billy is knotty and gnarled, an oak with an extraordinary 11.6 metre girth, named after an estate manager to Sir John Strangways, a leading Royalist, who owned the Melbury Park estate near Evershot in the early 17th century.

But it’s not even close to being the oldest tree in Dorset. That could well be the Bulbarrow Yew, which probably pre-dates Christianity, sprawling over 26 metres.

Churchyard yews, such as the Great Woolland, feature prominently in a new book, written by Andrew Pollard and Emma Brawn, with photos by Colin Varndell, and all royalties going to Dorset Wildlife Trust to continue preservation work.

The DWT’s Emma Brawn said: “We knew there were some wonderful trees in Dorset, but we had some very exciting discoveries putting the book together.

“One definition of a veteran tree is that it makes you go ‘Wow!’, and that was certainly my reaction when I saw the Bulbarrow Yew, for example, a totally untouched treasure.”

The Great Trees of Dorset is the result of a two-year investigation by DWT and the Dorset Greenwood Tree Project to find, record and hopefully preserve ancient trees.

Veteran trees are often home to many kinds of wildlife – birds and bats will nest in them, insects feed on rotted wood and spiders then feed on those insects; not forgetting mistletoe or lichens that can only grow on dry bark.

Over centuries the shape and appearance of a tree will change, because of gales, lightning, rootling badgers or the woodcutter’s axe, plus pollarding and coppicing.

During the World Wars, there was widespread felling, while Dutch elm disease wreaked havoc in the 1970s – and the books of Thomas Hardy reflect the importance of trees in Dorset’s history.

From deer parks, fields and hedgerows to ancient woodlands and commons, they’re all around us, some better known than others.

Many of us, for example, will have driven through the beech avenue near Kingston Lacy between Wimborne and Blandford, while the Martyrs’ Tree at Tolpuddle is among Britain’s top 10.

But how many have heard of Judge Wyndham’s Oak, in the village of Silton, just north of Gillingham, or the superb Stockbridge Oak, on the outskirts of Sherborne?

Did you know that even today RAF pilots will wiggle the wings of their planes as they fly over lime trees in Parnham Park, near Beaminster, in tribute to father and son heroes buried beneath – or that the Posy Tree was reputedly a gathering point during the Great Plague at Mapperton, which killed about 80 residents in 1582?

And why are the Crusader and Remedy oaks so named?

The Great Trees of Dorset – published by Dovecote Press (hardback £16.95, paperback £9.95) has the answers to these, and many more, ancient arboreal questions.