Aims of the Ancient Yew
Group
- To raise public awareness of the national and
world wide importance of our ancient Yews.
- To survey, record and monitor the health of
our ancient Yews.
- To highlight potential threats.
- To research and collate all modern and historical
references of our ancient Yew heritage.
- To provide advice to help people protect their
ancient Yews.
- To campaign for better protection and seek
government support.
- To bring together Yew tree enthusiasts, providing
an opportunity to discuss, enthuse and help towards achieving
the above aims.
Vision of the Ancient Yew Group
- That information on Yew trees and
their conservation is widely known amongst all
relevant organisations and individuals as a result of this web
site.
- That research funding
be made available for further studies of the yew tree eg recording
methodology, longitudinal growth patterns, detailed photography,
video-recording etc..
- There is a nationwide consultancy
service offering advice on the care of yew trees.
- That Ancient Yew trees receive strong legal
protection, both British and European.
- That a charitable trust
exists for the conservation and promotion of ancient yew trees.
- If a disused church with ancient yews became available this
would be a superb opportunity to convert the site to an Ancient
Yew Information Centre where records could be
archived, research students could work and the general public
enthused and informed by the use of displays, tea and book shop...
 Founder
members of the Ancient Yew Group
Tim Hills
Since 1997 Tim has visited approximately 1,100 sites where old
yews have been recorded. This has enabled him to build a picture
of the state of health of our oldest trees. He has also collected
information about the steady and often unnecessary decline in
their numbers.
With more than 1,700 yew entries on his data base and a photographic
record of 800 of the most significant, his work has created the
most up to date gazetteer of Taxus baccata L. in England and Wales
currently available.
Alongside the first hand observations and photographs gathered
at site visits he has collected a wealth of additional information
from historical sources. The gazetteer presents a glimpse of this
collection.
Andy McGeeney, Epping, Essex
Andy has been a semi-professional wildlife photographer for many
years and has been working since 1996 on a project celebrating
the yew tree. His work has been used in various mass media, including
magazines and books, and been exhibited around the country in
galleries and at arts festivals. "As well as their evident
beauty I am interested in the meaning of the yew tree to our ancestors
and what it means to us today. The yew tree project has been an
exploration of time, death renewal, and ecology, and a deeper
personal connection to Nature."
Fred Hageneder
Born in 1962 in Hamburg, Germany, Fred Hageneder has been extensively
studying trees for more than twenty years, in conjunction with
comparative religion, cultural history, mythology and archaeology.
This led to the publication of two books, "The Spirit of
Trees – Science, Symbiosis and Inspiration", bridging
natural science, myth, history, and the fine arts, and "The
Heritage of Trees – History, Culture and Symbolism",
a deep survey of the role trees have played played in ancient
culture and religion. Fred's work has been translated into German,
Italian and Czech. Presently he prepares an international book
about the yew tree. Also, he is a founding member and the chairman
of the Friends of the Trees, a charity to re-establish sacred
groves on the British Isles and to protect ancient trees, particularly
yews. For other ideas of spiritual ecology visit his website www.spirit-of-trees.net
Paul Greenwood
In 1989 Paul left a 16 year career in public service
for photography. Since then he has had work exhibited by the Royal
Photographic Society; has prints in private collections all over
the world; been published in books, magazines and the broadsheet
press and in major public relations work for companies such Orange
and the recent Newcastle/ Gateshead City of Culture initiative.
Since 2003 however he has devoted his working life in a voluntary
capacity full time to his research and work to raise awareness
of potentially ancient and historically important yew trees, especially
in northern Britain.
Paul¹s interest in yew began in 1991 by becoming intrigued
by some evergreen trees with beautiful red fruits growing on some
mountains in Cumbria, England. After identifying what the trees
were, very soon after he was given an article to read in Kindred
Spirit magazine (Anand Chetan/Autumn/ winter 1991) featuring the
work of yew expert Allen Meredith. Paul began his own research
in earnest the next year and by 1994 had an image included on
p 165 of The Sacred Yew (Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton, Penguin
Arkana) a book which expanded Allen Meredith¹s work and revealed
astonishing depths in the science, history and mythology of the
yew all quite unknown to Paul. This motivated him to discover
more independent evidence to support the central theme in the
book; that the yew should be protected not only because of its
amazing multiple powers of longevity and regeneration which makes
it “immortal”, and its medicinal benefits in safer
anti cancer treatment, but also as a “sacred” tree
- continually present and relevant in British culture and spirituality
since time out of mind to the present day. More reasons to do
something for yews came from the contents of the Gazetteer of
Ancient Yews published as an appendix in the book. Only 10% of
relevant yews known at that time had been traced in northern England
and Scotland and yet throughout the book were clues as to where
more could be found.
Paul has therefore dedicated himself, and funded, the gathering
of comprehensively researched information since 1992 (including
some ‘stunning’ and ‘unique’ images of
yews) and which, to date, now includes over 300 confirmed sites
with ancient and notable yews in northern Britain; including some
wholly original discoveries of huge significance. His work has
also revealed, to the satisfaction of many experts, that wild
yew habitats throughout Britain contain potentially very ancient
yews previously overlooked because they are of small girth size
(see Newsletter No 13. of the Tree Register of Great Britain 2004)
and are just as vital a part of the ancient yew heritage as are
the more well known, and just as essential, large yews (20 ft
or 6.0m plus) found in churchyards which are typically considered
to be ancient.
As well as his ‘Yew-Trees’ project he is a founder
member of the Ancient Yew Group and since July 2004 a Trustee
(and yew specialist) for the Friends of the Trees U.K Registered
Charity.
In September 2004 Paul¹s work was featured in BBC 1 NE &
Cumbria¹s television programme Inside Out. It included breakthrough
discoveries made at Borrowdale, Cumbria with pioneering yew dendrochronologist
Andy Moir and Maurice Pankhurst of the National Trust with contributions
from Fred Hageneder and military historian, longbow expert and
actor Robert Hardy C.B.E.
Contact -
Toby Hindson
Toby has researched the intractable problem of discovering the
ages of ancient yews since 1996. Some progress has been made,
and a condensed paper was written and handed out at The Alan Mitchell
Memorial Lectures 2000, at which Toby was a speaker. A thesis
style longitudinal study is now in preparation, and should be
complete in 2012. While firmly scientific in approach, he is driven
to do the work by a strong poetic and spiritual connection to
the natural world, yews in particular.
Contributory Members of the Ancient Yew Group
Peter Andrews
Many years ago I developed a keen interest in Natural
History. Through a study of British Botany I began to look at
the different species of trees and I saw for the first time at
Tisbury in Wiltshire, a magnificent churchyard Yew. Soon after
I began to visit different churchyards and other sites to see
and to photograph the Yews which grow there.
On one of my excursions I took my bicycle by train to Salisbury
to visit Knowlton Henge in Dorset. During my outward journey I
was between Damerham in Hampshire and Cranborne in Dorset when
to my amazement I saw a number of large Yews in woodland by the
road side. It was only later that I discovered these to be previously
unrecorded yews. Further south above Cranborne I saw roadsides
lined with Yew and knew many of them would have been planted there
for a special reason. I have since returned to this lovely area
a number of times and have found equally interesting yews, many
of them boundary and route markers.
I believe that these old Yews growing outside of churchyards
are also important and they need to be recorded and protected.
To understand the Yews better you need to study the history of
the area in which they grow. The English Heritage Records Centre
in Swindon has been particularly useful in being able to consult
old books and maps of this area.
Russell Ball
Russell Ball is a graduate Botanist and Chartered Biologist with
20 years experience in the tree care industry.
Russell Cleaver
Was trained in arboriculture and employed in countryside management
from his twenties to his fifties. First as a countryside ranger
and later as a manager of a historic park. Employed by Hampshire
County Council he is now predominantly involved in raising external
funds for recreational and heritage projects in the county.
For many years Russell has studied native woods and ancient trees,
especially yews, which in Hampshire are so common on chalk soils
they are popularly called the ‘Hampshire Weed’. However
it has become clear from his observation of many veteran trees,
that as such organisms age they gain in character and intrinsic
interest. A situation that he takes great solace from as he tip-toes
towards his own sixth decade.
Cliff Hansford
Like many people, I grew up in the understanding that yew trees
grow in churchyards and were planted there to supply timber for
arrows and long bows. Standing next to a yew tree reputed to be
1500 years old, in a country churchyard attached to a church 800
years old, raises doubts as to this understanding: here is a yew
tree which occupied this space some 700 hundred years before the
founding of the church. Does this then mean that churchyards embrace
the yew rather than the former definition?
It was after expressing these observations to a colleague that
I was introduced to the work of Allen Meredith through the book
The Sacred Yew by Chetan and Brueton, and then also to
Robert Bevan-Jones’ book The Ancient Yew. So began
my interest and subsequent involvement with the yew. Many yews
it would appear are of a great size and may well predate the church
to which they are assigned.
Impressed by the size of these churchyard yews I began in 2003
to visit more churchyards in Kent in the hope that I would discover
an undocumented one but soon realised that most were already recorded.
Further reading proved most rewarding and I learned of the Tree
Register, which in turn led me to “Yew Trees” (established
by Paul Greenwood) and finally to the work of The Ancient Yew
Group. Through the support and encouragement from Paul at “Yew
Trees” I moved on to fieldwork research in areas away from
churchyards. Such research has introduced me to wonderful yews
in places as varied as private gardens, the North Downs, local
park lands, surroundings of a religious nature, an original monastic
site and stately homes to name but a few.
Discovering and sharing my finds with others, be they fellow enthusiasts
or custodians of yew themselves has meant sharing much more than
just the discovery of another yew. Owners and custodians are always
grateful to learn more about these wonderful enigmatic splendours
of our heritage and I’m just as thrilled by their enthusiasm.
Many yews are potential Ancient Monuments in their own right,
with possible significant links to our ancestral past and its
players, but in many cases remain unrecognised as such. In my
own little way, and with the guidance and support of those far
more experienced than myself, I can only hope that my contribution
will help to raise the profile, significance and understanding
of our yews here in Kent.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
David Alderman of the Tree Register, who recognised
the significance of the information gathered by members of the
Ancient Yew Group and has worked tirelessly to oversee the development
of this web site.
The Conservation Foundation, for instigating
many projects associated with the yew and providing support in
our efforts to save threatened trees.
Authors of the books featured in the Bibliography,
who have advanced the knowledge of ancient yews in the British
Isles:
Trevor Baxter: Robert Bevan-Jones: Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton:
Vaughan Cornish: J.Daryll Evans: Hal Hartzell,Jr.: John Lowe:
Ken Mills: E.W. Swanton: Richard Williamson
Allen Meredith, whose gazetteer (appendix 3 in
Chetan and Brueton’s The Sacred Yew) lists 404 ancient yew
sites in the British Isles and inspired many to carry out further
yew research.
Arthur Mee, author of The King’s England Series,
who travelled the country to record architecture, but was aware
of the significance of old yews in churchyards.
Originally published by Hodder and Stoughton his guidebooks have
become historical documents in their own right and many are now
available in reprints of the originals, produced by The King’s
England Press.
CPAT – The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust,
whose Historic Churches Survey Database can be found at www.cpat.org.uk
. Their detailed observation and recording of ancient churchyards
has uncovered many undiscovered ancient yews. Making their findings
so accessible sets an example for others to follow.
The Buildings of England series by Pevsner published by
Yale University Press:
Nikolaus Pevsner – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire,
Derbyshire, Dorset, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire,
Shropshire, Somerset, Sussex, Wiltshire and Worcestershire.
David Verey and Alan Brooks - Gloucestershire
John Newman – Kent
Ian Nairn - Surrey
The Buildings of Wales series published by Yale
University Press:
John Newman – Glamorgan, Gwent/Monmouthshire
Richard Haslam – Powys
Yew recorders
Contributors to the Tree Register’s data base
Robert Bevan-Jones – Hertfordshire
Phillip Burbury – particularly yews on cliffs and escarpments
in North Yorkshire and Durham
Lin Carter – Berkshire
Steve Dennis – Herefordshire and Derbyshire
Owen Johnson – Trees of Sussex
Andrew Morton – Trees of Shropshire
Yew surveys carried out in Brecon and Hampshire
Owners/finders of exceptional yews
D.J.Beer, Roger Benner, Adrian Bruce-Smythe, Tony Hackett, Sheila
Hardiman, Stephen Horn, Mike Jenkins, David Knapp, Lalit Kumar,
John Knight, Andrew Locke, Donald Rice, Colin Roberts, John Scudamore,
David and Anne Seabright, John Shaw, Tina Smale, Paul Strike,
Roland Trafford-Roberts, Sir Humphry Wakefield Bt., Sue Watts,
Luke Wilson
Tree professionals with an interest in yews
Russell Ball, Kevin Hand, Fergus Kinmonth, Andy Moir, Donald Rodger,
Paul Tabbush
The Cliff Ecology Research Group, University of Guelph, Canada
– Doug Larson, Uta Matthes, J.A.Gerrath and Peter Kell
Thanks also to:
Jan Fry, who hosted the meetings that brought together those
involved in this enterprise.
Tony Titchen, whose enthusiasm for sharing tree knowledge was
the gazetteer’s starting point.
Dave Foster – Northpoint Multimedia Ltd for invaluable
technological advice and assistance in digital imaging.
The Bristol Naturalist Society librarians.
Long suffering and generous family members who allow us to pursue
our interest in the conservation of Ancient Yew Trees.
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