This article first appeared in The Antique
Collector 2/85
It was also one of the Appendices to Sandra’s book COLDWALTHAM:
A STORY OF THREE HAMLETS published in August, 1987
Hearts pound, hackles rise and money is hard to come by when old
trees are fought for. A case in point was the West Sussex yew standing
in leafy majesty in Coldwaltham churchyard, and reputed to be one
of the 12 oldest in the land. In 1964, a local resident informed
West Sussex County Council that the vicar and parish council were
fearful that parts of the yew might be cut down ‘to avoid
interference’ with two new buildings just given planning consent
to go up in adjacent plots. Horsham District Council enforced a
Tree Preservation Order to prevent the ‘topping, lopping or
wilful destruction’ of the yew.
Before the Order comes into force, a careful examination of the
tree is made. Assessing age can present problems, although one method
is simply to put a tape measure round the tree’s girth and
multiply the inches by a certain figure to get the total of years.
However, this method doesn’t work with yews, which grow very
slowly. Taking a core sample from the Coldwaltham yew was impossible,
too, because most of its core had gone.
Coldwaltham parishioners were displeased when a local newspaper
reported that the tree was only 280-plus years old. This contradicted
local knowledge which placed the yew’s age at nearer 1000
years. There is no way, however, of proving such a grand old age.
The first county maps only date back to 1575, and these are very
small-scale, with few features such as specific trees distinguishable.
Large-scale (tithe) maps only began to be made in the middle of
the 19th century.
However, one piece of ‘evidence’ for there having
been a chapel 1000 years ago on the site of the present Coldwaltham
church was, in fact, the ancient yew. Even if the yew were not planted
until the yard of St. Giles’ Church (built in 1120) was enclosed,
it could still be around 500 years old, if not more. The latter
is the theory of Mr Derry Watkins, the tree surgeon responsible
for its repair.
The age of the tree was stated as 280 -plus years by Horsham District
Council’s report in November 1982 on the work which needed
doing. This, in the council’s opinion, was sufficient age
to merit the importance of continued preservation; plus the fact
that the Tree Preservation Order demanded it.
There is something reassuring about having a Tree Preservation
Order and certainly an order gives a measure of protection, by its
very existence. Penalties are inflicted for the violation of orders,
via the courts by the local authority concerned. Such penalties
vary in severity, according to a tree’s importance. In Kent
recently, a man felled a whole avenue of preserved trees and was
sent to prison for six months, and fined heavily. In Sussex, a developer
who cut down preserved trees was fined £300 per tree - £1500
in total.
The Tree Preservation Order’s main weakness is that a piece
of paper, however official, cannot alone suffice. The Council for
the Protection of Rural England discovered in a survey that TPO
legislation is at fault, in failing to ensure positive management
of protected trees. Yet without the brief, or the resources, those
making the Orders cannot stand guard over the trees. It is usually
left to those living nearby, to enforce the orders by ‘keeping
an eye open’. That is rather haphazard, to say the least.
Ironically, these same voluntary guardians raise another weakness
in the system. When it became apparent that the Coldwaltham yew
needed attention, Horsham District Council, as the councils do,
suggested to the churchwardens the names of several reputable tree
surgeons, including that of Mr Watkins. But often people, wanting
to save money and ignorant of the complications involved, use their
own labour, or that of people not good at that kind of work, to
do repairs. They end up by inflicting worse damage, and some of
the ‘jobs done’, according to Mr I. C. Richardson, the
Tree Officer for Horsham District Council, are ‘appalling’.
Anyway, back in Coldwaltham, Mr Watkins set to work, bracing and
stapling. The yew was repaired, and the bill for £299 was
sent to the churchwardens for the Parish Church Council to pay.
The Diocese of Chichester had no money to spend on a tree. The Historic
Churches Preservation Trust only give grants towards essential church-fabric
repairs. The District Council, also approached, had no money to
spare. The County Council, much involved in its share of the national
forward-looking tree-planting campaign, had no grant aid available
for ‘private’ trees, however old.
So it fell to the caring parishioners of Coldwaltham, plus lovers
of the village from all over the district who saw the tree as part
of their heritage, to foot the bill. Various fund-raising events
brought in two-thirds of the cost. There is no resentment. Pride
has won the day.
 :
The Coldwaltham Yew in 1999 © Tim Hills
It seems hard, though, that they should have to pay that bill,
in addition to the many other charities and works they, and their
counterparts all over the country, unfailingly support.
There are very few national bodies who can help. The Men of the
Trees Society has long been aware of the need to help not only churches
with their trees, but individuals who might buy a house and find
that thrown in with it was a ‘protected’ tree, the maintenance
of which they would be forced to take on. The Men of Trees do give
financial help for individual trees, on the advice submitted to
headquarters by all the county bodies.
The Royal Society for Nature Conservation, to which are affiliated
organisations in 44 British counties - called county naturalist
trusts, conservation trusts or nature conservation trusts, does
provide money for important tree-preservation projects, either through
governmental bodies or special charitable trusts.
Equally prepared to help, if the tree merits it, are the Countryside
Commission, to which the county councils are affiliated, giving
grant aid to protect and repair existing trees, if they are an important
feature of the landscape. In the summer of 1983, for example, they
offered a grant, via East Sussex County Council, to repair the Crowhurst
churchyard yew similar to that at Coldwaltham.
© Copyright – Sandra Saer
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