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36
BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON
HISTORIC CHURCHES
22
ND ANNUAL EDITION
HISTORIC
CHURCHYARD YEWS
Toby Hindson
M
ANY OF the yews that exist
in our churchyards are widely
held to pre-date the Christian
consecration of the church site. This
exaggeration has its roots in Victorian
guidebooks and wishful local histories.
Such yews do exist in British churchyards,
but investigations by the Ancient Yew
Group (AYG) show that while the myths
surrounding them are many, pre-Christian
yews themselves are relatively few.
Many of our oldest churchyard yews
were planted around the time of the
original Christian consecration of the
churchyards in which they stand. Such
‘consecration yews’ are integral to their
site, and stand as witness to all that has
happened at the church of which they
are part, familiar to all who ever set foot
there. Some are original Saxon or Norman
trees, others are of a later date depending
on the era of the first Christian building
on the site. Important renovations also
seem to have triggered yew plantings and
some fall into this category.
The oldest consecration yews are up to
1,400 years old. Although we do not know
exactly why (there are many theories), it is
evident that the planting of yews has been
a part of site consecration throughout
Christian history in Britain – a tradition
that continues today. The AYG contends
that consecration yews should be treated
as artefacts of historic significance equal
to that of other original parts of the
church building and its setting.
As for those yews which do seem
to pre-date Christianity, these are rare,
staggeringly important in national or even
international terms, immensely interesting
and most exceptional. A few such
specimens are mentioned below.
Knowing a yew’s age is key to
understanding its historical significance. It
is understandable that some might query
the AYG’s age estimates because these
sometimes conflict with previous efforts
to date a particular tree. Even after 200
years the science of yew dating remains in
some turmoil. The chief problem is that
the oldest yews are hollow. Through the
centuries broken branches and injuries
to the trunk allow access to bacteria and
fungi which cause rot to begin in the
wood at the centre of the tree. This rotting
is almost inevitable over the huge lifespan
of the yew, and because yew wood is
exceptionally strong and flexible does not
harm the living parts of the tree as it often
does other species. However, because
the oldest wood is missing, radiocarbon
and dendrochronological investigations
cannot be definitive.
A case in point is the Defynnog yew
in Powys. In July 2014 several national
newspapers carried articles claiming that
this particular yew (or pair of yews) was
5,000 years old. However, when the Ancient
Yew Group examined the evidence, it was
found to be pseudo-scientific and highly
selective, relying solely on evidence which
appeared to support the inflated age while
ignoring important evidence which refuted
it. (Details of the case are available on the
AYG website – see Further Information).
Unconvincing claims like this have been
common in the past but as the AYG
continues its cataloguing and statistical
dating work, a clearer and more scientific
picture of our oldest trees is emerging.
An ancient yew in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Tisbury, Wiltshire (Photo: Jonathan Taylor)
The fragmented but self-supporting shell of the
immensely ancient yew at Farringdon Churchyard
in Hampshire: it remains almost unchanged in girth
(9m or 30 feet) since it was measured by Gilbert
White about 1789. (Photo: Toby Hindson)