In 1988 the original yew campaign was set up by David Bellamy and the Conservation Foundation and launched by Country Living magazine, to promote awareness of ancient yews. Certificates estimating the ages of yews were signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Bellamy, Robert Hardy and Allen Meredith and were sent out to churches where they were proudly displayed and where they are often still to be found.

This campaign led on to the Millennium Yews, where cuttings were taken by arborist Fergus Kinmouth, from 2,000 year old yew trees and grown on to produce new trees to celebrate 2,000 years of the Christian faith. David Bellamy said these young yews ‘would be symbols of community and signs of creation’. The 60 parent yews included the ancient yews of Buxted, Linton, Crowhurst, Surrey and Farringdon. Special church services to bless the young trees took place and one Bishop was known to say in astonishment that ‘People would not normally come to a service in my cathedral – but they have come for a tree!’ The project was a huge success with around 7,000 young yew trees distributed to churches all over the UK. Last week the 20th anniversary of the project was being celebrated in Church Times which also promoted the Campaign for Legal Protection of Ancient Yews.https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/18-october/features/features/are-the-millennium-yew-trees-casting-their-shade

As David Shreeve of the Conservation Foundation said of these trees, ’They were planted in the spirit of a living link with the birth of Jesus and as a symbol that if we wanted this millennium yew to live for another 2,000 years, we would need to care for and cherish our local environment.’ But although Lord Chartres said of the Millenium Yews that ‘Planting a tree is one of the ways of demonstrating faith in the future’, today many are concerned that their continued longevity is at risk.

David Alderman of the Tree Register said ‘The reason why we have so many ancient yews, is that they have been protected in churchyards, but in recent years there has been more pressure on development – the development of the church itself, whether through building extensions or churches going redundant and not being managed by the same people, or being sold off completely. In that sense, yews are more under threat now than just 100 years ago’. David Alderman agrees with us, that some form, of legislation will be required, ‘Without it all the good will in the world will not protect yew trees threatened by development’.

Some millenium yews may still be available from Trees Direct

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