As you’ll know by now, the ancient yew on our Campaign heading is the one at Crowhurst in Sussex and I’ve been promising to tell all our supporters about the other Crowhurst Yew, the iconic one in Surrey, which looks like something out of a fairytale! The picture of it here was taken by Andrew MacLean. This yew is believed to be over 4,000 years old! 2,000 years older than the one in Crowhurst Sussex and the hollow trunk, offering a space of around 6 feet across, was fitted out as a room with table and chairs in the 19th century, while a wooden door was added! There are similar yews, like the one at Llanbedr Ystradyw where the vicar liked to have tea and a quiet chat!
It brings into question how yews are aged and this is an almost impossible task with yews being capable of continuous regeneration. All that is possible is to give a minimum age but it is not unusual to find ancient objects buried or placed with these yews such as Neolithic axe heads, Sarsen stones and Roman altars, which suggest how long the yews have been there and most people would be surprised to know that there are references to yews on sacred sites dating back 1500 years! Of course some ancient yews were there before the churches, some on Iron Age hill forts or with pre Christian standing stones and holy wells. Dendrochronolgy cannot date hollow yew trees. However it is not a new science and researchers in early Victorian times were finding 48-90 rings per inch in wood left in the Fortingall yew and estimated it to be over 4,000 years old. Modern forestry researchers such as Tabbush and White estimated a yew at Kingley Vale near Chichester, to be 2,800 – 5,500 years old. And scientists in Turkey where the climate is drier, so the yews do not rot and hollow, have recently found several yews with 4,000 rings. However yews do not always produce rings preferring to rest at times and the yew at Tandridge which was 26 feet in girth in 1677 has not increased its girth since those times!
You can read more about ‘Ageing the Yew’ at
http://www.janisfryart.co.uk/ankerwycke_yew_books.htm#yew-articles
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