Yews: The Grand Old Survivors

With many well over 1,000 years old, these fascinating trees have stood the test of time and ‘assaults’ over the centuries by generations of people.

A THREE year project that took her to every churchyard in Berkshire led to Linda Carter recording over 450 yews within them and previously sacred places. It all started after 1995’s ‘The Living Churchyard Project’ with a training day at White Waltham, where St Mary’s Church now has an ancient yew, a younger one and a third planted for the Millennium.

Size, age and known history, including some now shrubby versions which had been chopped down or pollarded many years ago and since restarted new lives, everything went into a comprehensive and invaluable record. All the most noted yews are there, plus others which could well find their place in history perhaps centuries from now.

MEET THE BIG SIX

ANKERWYKE

It stands in previously consecrated grounds at Wraysbury, has a girth of over 30 ft and is now a hollow shell over a root system still producing a crown.

LANGLEY MARISH

A golden oldie behind protective railings, with a decayed trunk from which stems still grow.

WHITE WALTHAM

Another grand survivor, having been taken down to head height, but with limbs still growing.