The oak tree stood atop a set of steps known as the "Fish Stones" that were used by medieval monks to display salmon for sale.

The Caton is reputed to have been the focus of the village since the era of the druids, for whom the oak was a sacred tree which often formed the centre of religious rites.

[4] The Caton Oak is rooted in the River Lune and the trunk protrudes above a set of old sandstone steps known as the "Fish Stones".

[3] By the 1940s the tree was the site for a portable blacksmith's forge where a smith from nearby Hornby regularly set up to shoe horses for Caton's agricultural community.

Specialists were consulted who recommended that the tree be felled but it was saved by the villagers and the parish council who erected metal props to the branch in question.