Originally a churchyard yew, its status was to be dramatically altered
by the events of 1575:
“…..on the 17th of February, at six o-clock in the Evening,
the Earth began to open, and a Hill with a Rock under it . . . lifted
itself up a great height, and began to travel, bearing along with it
the Trees that grew upon it, the Sheep folds and Flocks of Sheep abiding
there at the same time. In the place from where it was first mov’d
it left a gaping distance forty foot broad, and fourscore ells long;
the whole Field was about 20 acres. Passing along, it overthrew a Chapel
standing in the way . . .” (1674) ¹
The first account to specifically mention the Yew is found in the Gentleman’s
Magazine of 1793:
“……… it has left immense chasms of earth and moved
stones thence at the magnitude of five or six tons; a number of trees thrown
down, some moved standing and now remain so; a large old yew tree was moved
nearly sixty feet, and is now standing fine and uninjured.”
Dr Fuller’s account in 1815 ² added that
the “ aged yew-tree, growing in the chapel yard” was removed “from
the west to the east”.
The Woolhope Club account of 1899 is more cautious
about the yew’s origins, but provides a clear description of
its location:
“The church or chapel at Kynaston was involved in the landslip,
and it is believed that the Yew tree, the roots of which are still
visible in the hollow beneath the deep cutting in the Upper Ludlow
rocks at the crossroads half way up the hill leading to the Cockshoot,
originally stood in, or close to, Kynaston churchyard.”
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