VISITS by Allen Meredith
I first visited this tree in St Mary’s churchyard on the 12th August 1981 and found it to be quite healthy with many young shoots coming from it. Since much of its east side is now filled with concrete, it is no longer possible to accurately record its girth, so although the tree measures approximately 26ft in girth at 2 ft from the ground and 25ft at 4ft from the ground, it would more accurately be recorded as several feet less.
This yew is situated south of the church. It is a female tree, seen in August with the different stages of small acorn, and the later crimson flesh, covering the seed. One hundred years ago it was described as a hollow wreck, but has since made a remarkable recovery. We now know that these ancient yews can remain hollow for centuries while continuing to throw out healthy shoots New bark appears to have grown over the old, particularly on the east side.
The hollow centre had evidently been burnt out at some stage and the central cavity of the trunk filled with concrete and stones. The concreted side detracts from the tree’s natural character, although it was presumably filled in this manner with good intent.
The Iffley Yew in 1998 © Tim Hills
The hole measures just over 3ft high and 4ft wide, which compares with an account of the tree over 100 years ago by John Lowe in his book, The Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland: “The trunk is now little more than a shell, and there is an opening on the east side of the tree, which is 4ft high and about 4ft wide.”
It is difficult to age any yew unless the history of an individual tree has been well recorded. Old prints of the Iffley Yew show that even more than 220 years ago (1785) this yew looked suitably ancient, very decayed and quite hollow.
The Iffley Yew in 1785
I am in no doubt that this tree is Saxon, and my estimated age of this tree would be not less than 1,100 years old. I would go further and say that this tree was most probably planted at some time between 686 and 886 A.D. Ring counts toward the outer margin of the trunk should read between 30 and 38 to the inch, making the age of the tree somewhere between 1,100 to 1,400 years. There are several early monastic records of Saxons specifically planting yews on the south side of the burial ground or enclosure. If historians take time to investigate this yew or even the burial ground, I think that they would find both to be of Saxon origin.
Perhaps to get an idea of how slowly the yew can grow, we should visit a yew at the nearby Oxford Botanic Gardens. This yew was planted by Bobart in 1650 and is only some 7 feet in girth. A plaque on the tree says it was planted during the English Civil War in 1645.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF THE IFFLEY YEW:
Gentleman’s Magazine 1804
lffley Yew
Mr Urban, Nov. 10.
“………….at a loss how to amuse ourselves, we turned to an ancient yew-tree on the South side of the church, which had suffered greatly from the weather, that leaned much, and was perfectly hollow. Into this tree we alternately thrust ourselves, remarking the various stages of decay, the excrescences of the wood, and the most vigorous shoots and branches; but, returning from our closet into the yard, the light, admitted through the aperture, showed us hard particles buried in the very substance of the wood at various depths, which appeared to be stones; and, upon careful examination, they proved such of different sizes; some were round pebbles, others broken fragments, and one piece, at least seven feet from the surface of the surrounding ground, weighed more than a pound. It was evident from the situation of every stone, some fast in the wood, others barely visible, and some dropping out, that they had all been carried up from the earth by the growth of the tree, had been in its very core, and were now accidentally released at intervals of time as the tree decayed.”
Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet 1808,
lfley Oxon
“Near the cross stands a yew-tree supposed to be of equal antiquity with the church; it measures about ten paces in circumference upon the ground; the trunk is much decayed, and presents a vacuity in which a man may stand erect…………In the decayed trunk are many chippings of stone, similar to that used in the building of the church.”
The Iffley Yew in 1837
British Phaenogamous Botany by William Baxter 1843
“The most remarkable tree in the neighbourhood of Oxford, is one in Iffley church-yard which is supposed to be as old as the church itself (above 700 years). It is 22 feet high, the girt of the trunk, at two feet from the ground, is 20 feet………..the trunk is now (Feb 15, 1837) little more than a shell, with an opening 4 feet square on the East side.”
Chambers Journal (1892) lfley
“An ancient yew whose furrowed half-prostrate trunk seems ‘weary worn with care,’ and as we stand beside its bending form, a feeling of sympathy, akin to that which we extend to a fellow being stooping low with a load of years, rises within us. This yew is considered by competent judges to be the oldest living tree in Britain, and must have been full-grown long before the first Oxford spire was raised in the vale below.”
The Iffley Yew more recently featured in 1992 on channel 4s Spirit of the Trees. Some of the engravings noted below were used as part of the programme.
Engravings of Iffley church and yew
The engraving of 1785 was of a view originally drawn in 1774 and published 28th July 1785 by S. Hooper. The accompanying text reads:
“The yew tree, shown in this view, which exhibits the north east aspect, seems scarcely younger than the church.”
Memorials of Oxford, James Ingram; volume 3
Ifley—memorials of Oxford no 31, 1834, shows s/w view of Ifley church, also a wood cut of n/e side view-shows part of the yew.
(Edward Rowe Mores) engravings of Ifley church about 1759.
Oxonia Antique Restaurate 170 engravings from original drawings 1723-1823 by Joseph
Skelton Oxford; 1823 2 volumes.
ETYMOLOGY of the word IFFLEY:
‘If ’ is the French for yew. The name Ifley suggests that the Normans could have adopted this tree.
Isabel M.Lowe wife of John Lowe, that great authority on yew trees, wrote in 1910 that Ifley was spelt in a variety of ways: Ivefeley, Yvefeley, Iffeley, Ifley etc. all of which were yew place names.
THE LEWIS CARROLL CONNECTION
What memories this tree might have, what scenes it may have witnessed, the very breath of each human it absorbed in its leaves, that very breath, now part of the tree, just as those buried beneath it become part of it.
Because Charles Dodgson, alias Lewis Carroll, and Alice lived in Oxford during those crucial formative years of Alice in Wonderland, I have wondered what small part the Iffley Yew might have played in their adventures. The famous author frequently took boat trips on that part of the Thames known as Isis, and on several occasions, after mooring at Iffley lock, wandered up to the churchyard with the children, including Alice, where they picnicked on the grass.
Lewis Carroll would certainly have known about yews; at his birthplace of Daresbury, a yew grows in the churchyard. At Croft Rectory, Croft upon Tees, where he grew up and no doubt had many childhood adventures, there still grows close to the house an ancient yew known as the ‘umbrella tree’. This in due course furnished the title of Charles Dodgson’s famous ‘very local’ magazine, The Rectory Umbrella.Lewis Carroll was also buried beneath an old yew in Guildford cemetery.
I have come across more than one account of Carroll making several excursions to Iffley church and churchyard. It was during these boat trips and excursions with Alice that the Alice in Wonderland stories were born.
Outing; May 1895 Volume xxvi No 2
Ifley---“Maybe it was near this spot that Lewis Carroll, leaving his quiet old rooms in Christ Church, where he still lives, told the children he loved to gather about him the story of “Alice in Wonderland” or wandered with them to see the old yew tree, in the quaint little churchyard at Ifley.”
 
The Iffley Yew in 1890 and 1905
The famous introduction of Alice entering Wonderland through the ‘rabbit hole’ is not the original version. Carroll’s version is of Alice about to enter the door in a tree. This is of particular interest, since at the time Carroll would have seen this tree it was quite hollow with sufficient space for one if not two people to enter inside it. Entering a hollow yew is like entering another world. Could Carroll have been influenced by the yew in some way?
Extract from a biography: Lewis Carroll; Donald Thomas, 1996
“Alice was the inspiration for the story of Alice in Wonderland, when, as a seven-year-old, she spent a ‘golden afternoon’ on a river expedition with Lewis Carroll and her two sisters on July 4th 1862. It was on that day that Carroll first told his story of Alice’s Adventures under ground.” (It was at this time that Lewis Carroll frequently visited the churchyard at Iffley)
How intimate Lewis Carroll was with the yew, we may never know, nor how the yew may have influenced his writing. What we do know, is that Lewis Carroll would have seen and known the Iffley Yew.
Gertrude Thomson, writing after Lewis Carroll’s death described “A grey day, calm, and without a sound, full of the peace of God which passeth all understanding. A steep, stony, country road, with hedges close on either side, fast quickening with the breath of the premature spring. Between the withered leaves of the dead summer a pure white daisy here and there shone out like a little star. A few mourners slowly climbed the hill in silence, while borne before them on a simple hand-bier was the coffin, half hid in flowers. Under an old yew, round whose gnarled trunk the green ivy twined, in the pure white chalk earth his body was laid to rest, while the slow bell tolled the passing------”
A LAST WORD
No branch or fragment of wood, dead or alive, should be removed from this sacred, ancient tree. Sadly in 2001 I saw that a large bough had been sawn off and removed. Those who carried out this work did not intend harm and I am sure they knew nothing of the tree’s history and importance. This branch was approximately l6ins in diameter and at a very rough estimate appeared to have between 270-300 rings, so close together as to be almost impossible to count.
It is for this reason that I felt the need to record this information, so that these ancient living monuments begin to get the protection and respect they deserve.
© Allen Meredith
The Iffley Yew 1998 ©Tim Hills
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