THE SOUTH WALL
YEW TREE
AT ALL SAINTS

Writing as someone who can not tell a tree from a park bench, the Yew tree that grew alongside the church was just that, part of All Saints churchyard, blending into the background. It did not figure largely in the picture of All Saints that for many years adorned the top left corner of the home page on the web site, reproduced right, where it is made to look small by the tree on the left edge of the picture. It was only when it came to my attention in the minutes of the P C C that I realised how attractive it made the scene, and how it helped to make you believe you were in the midst of the country.
The P C C minutes of the meeting held 23 January 2008 briefly stated :

"Item 21 of the All Saints Quinquennial Inspection Report requiring an arboriculturalist's report on the south yew tree has been obtained by Mr Hyatt recommending it should be removed. A form forwarded to E.D.D.C. awaits the outcome of a meeting on site with their representative on the 25th February".

The P C C meeting of the 17 September 2008 merely records "All Saints- Yew tree close to south wall cut down to ground level and root treated and disposal of branches completed."

No more will the tree provide a relief to the bare south wall of All Saints, gone is the sense of scale and the current photographs do not have the focal point it gave. Nevertheless it will live on as the following article written in October 2008 by Chris Watson, church warden attests.

Following on from last Months "Words", you may remember that the yew on the south side of All Saints Church has now been felled. Being the proud owner of a large chainsaw; it was put to good use cutting the tree into moveable sized pieces with the help of Ron Huntingdon and Frank Sizer. The plan is to turn some of the larger pieces on my lathe to raise funds for the All Saints restoration.

I thought you might like to share some research I have completed on the yew tree.

The Yew, Taxus baccata, is an ancient tree species that has survived since before the Ice Age and as such has been revered and used by humankind throughout the ages. All races of the Northern Hemisphere, especially the Celts, the Greeks, the Romans and the North American Indians, have a right and powerful understanding of this unusual and remarkable tree. Because of its longevity and its unique way of growing new trunks from within the original root bole, it has now been estimated that some English Yews are as much as 4,000 years old, their presence spanning ages of time and history.

There are about 10 different species of Yew in the northern temperate zones of Asia, Asia Minor, India, Europe, North Africa and North America. They are all thought to have descended from Paleotaxus rediviva, which was found imprinted on a Triassic era fossils laid down more than 200,000,000 years ago. Recently, more fossils of the Yew have been found from the Jurassic era, (140,000,000 years ago). So the Yew has managed to survive the great climatic changes of our planet, adapting and finding ways to live longer than most species alive today. According to pollen counts taken from peat bogs of Europe, the Yew trees grew in greater abundance at the time of the Ice Age than they do now. As the glaciers receded northwards, the great forests of Europe contained up to 80% of Yew trees; and since these times have been in continuous decline.

Ancient Yew wood tools and implements can be found in museums throughout Europe. Because it is a slow-growing tree, it has a tight-grained wood, tough and resilient, used in the past for spears, spikes, staves, small hunting bows and eventually the famous longbows of the Middle Ages. The arrows were tipped with poison made from the Yew. The entire tree is poisonous - wood, bark, needles and seed. The only part which isn't is the fleshy part of the seed. Be aware of the dangerous aspects of the Yew if you handle the tree or work with the wood.

A lot of our ancient Yews are found in churchyards but there is no doubt that they were there before the churches were built. Many churches and churchyards once stood in a circle of Yews, which were probably a legacy of the Druids sacred groves.

At Amesbury in Wiltshire, there are 14 Yews in a churchyard and 18 at Bradford-on-Avon. All are growing on blind springs. The 99 Yews in a churchyard at Painswick in Gloucestershire were also found to be on nodes or springs. It seems likely that the Yews were planted with the intention of marking and protecting these powerful spots. A new system of dating Yews suggests that some of our most ancient and protected Yews are 4,000 years old and not 1,500 years old as previously thought.

The Yew is considered to be the most durable wood of the European forest, and more practically it is said to sink as is a dense and heavy wood. It is fairly easy to carve and the most beautiful of our native woods, a deep golden orange, with a deep red core which polishes up well. It was used in the past for making wheels and cogs, spoons, handles, bowls and any turned items.

It should be noted, though, that even the dust produced from sanding Yew wood is poisonous, and great care should be taken where you work and how you work.