Yew
Yew (Taxus baccata)
- Diameter - 1.06 metres, Height - 8 metres
- Age (Estimated) - 250 years
- Crown spread: North - 3 metres, East - 4 metres, South - 9 metres, West - 4 metres
With their hollow gnarled trunks and huge girths, some yew trees are believed to be more than a thousand years old. Not surprisingly, they are surrounded by legend and were once a symbol of everlasting life, despite being highly poisonous.
The common Yew is often called the English Yew, but in fact is found wild from the West of Ireland eastwards to the Himalayas. From North to South it ranges from the lowlands of Scandinavia to Greece, Sicily, Spain and North Africa.
Most Conifers die once they have been felled. Not so the Yew, which thrives of such maltreatment. It is a real survivor of such tenacity that it appears to be indestructible. It will throw up new strong shoots and even new internal trunks, a renewable supply of timber - ideal for the construction of things with great physical and spiritual strength.
While the Yew was used for the best Longbows, the wood came from trees coppiced from mainland Europe. This was a fair exchange because the polished stone axes that allowed Neolithic people to start the clearance of the forests of western Europe were exported from what we now call the Lake District.
Like many plants that favour well-fertilised land, the Yew stores its excess nitrogen as very poisonous alkaloids. Every part of the Yew tree contains such toxic chemicals, so churchyards which were walled or at least fenced off seemed to be the only places where the feared and revered Yew could be allowed to grow safely beyond the reach of domestic animals. Good examples of YEw trees can be seen in Delph Woods.
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