Dating Yews By Allen Meredith

Dating Yews
By Allen Meredith

It has been 25 years since I first put pen to paper and worked out a rough graph for ageing yew trees. Since then I have not changed my opinion on the age estimates.

What I will make very clear is that all 3 charts shown below are ‘age estimates’ and not proven scientific data. They give only possible ages for the yews.

It is my opinion that most ancient yews can never be scientifically dated. This is not just because of the fact that many become hollow, but also because of their unique power to regenerate and become dormant at various stages in their lives.

Scientific dating methods will only be able to give a minimum age of some of the more ancient yews, mainly because it can only date what is there.

That any tree has lived for over 1000 years on a sacred site is quite miraculous, especially in Britain, when one considers the conflict and changes of religion that have occurred on any one site.

Below is my own classification of Old, Veteran and Ancient:

OLD YEWS --------------> 500 years +

VETERAN YEWS-------> 1000 years +

ANCIENT YEWS--------> 2000 years +

Details of the ageing process of the yew can be found in The Sacred Yew by Diana Brueton and Anand Chetan.

July 1980 These figures take into account my own recordings and the findings of others who had written about yews.		November 1982 These figures take into account various ring counts on yews, young and ancient, plus known planting dates, and previous recordings.		January 1985 These figures are rough guidelines, and in no way give accurate data, but the girths and ages are all possibilities. The history of an individual yew is the only way to authenticate age, apart from any detailed scientific study
Girth	Age	Girth	Age	Girth	Age
		3 feet	60 years
6 feet	100 years	6 feet	120 years
9 feet	200 years	9 feet	180 years	9 feet	242 years
				11 feet	292 years
12 feet	300 years	12 feet	300 years
		15 feet	480 years
16 feet	600 years
18 feet	750 years	18 feet	720 years	18 feet	720 years
19 feet	800 years
				19ft 8ins	820 years
		21 feet	1020 years
23 feet	1000 years
		24 feet	1440 years	24ft 5½ins	1360 years
25 feet	1250 years
		27 feet	2000 years	27ft 2ins	1810 years
28 feet	1860 years
30 feet	2300 years	30 feet	2660 years	30 feet	2400 years
31 feet	2600 years
32 feet	3000 years
		33 feet	3500 years	33 feet	3000 years
35 feet	4000 years			35 feet	4400 years
				35 ft 6 ins	5000 years
		36 feet	4500 years	36 feet	5600 years
		39 feet	5700 years

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