Another update, from today June 29th 2017.
European Hornbeam. It says 'give me another 5 years, then I'll be 30yo'.
Step by step, executing the 'veteren tree bonsai' look for this tree.
Harvested from a hedge, in 2012.
A few pictures of old, gnarly, veteren (european) hornbeam trees. Hornbeams were frequently planted (and pollarded) at the edges of meadows or farmland as indicator, alongside hollow roads, forest edges, and offcourse in rural hedges where pruning was not always frequent and where some ended up looking like old pollarded trees.