Chipping Campden

Nearest town: Broadway

Site type: garden

Access: Private

Church name: No Data

Diocese: No Data

County: Gloucestershire

Country: England

Grid ref: withheld

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 19-Apr-10

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: Conservation Area-Glos CC-Cotswold District

Yews recorded at this site: Notable

Notes: This is one of the most unlikely settings in which to find so many unclassified yews. They grow on mediaeval 'burgage plots', long narrow gardens about 20ft wide behind houses on the main street of Chipping Campden. It seems extraordinary that so many yews should have been planted in such a confined space. It raises many questions. Was the land owned by one person? If not how was agreement reached by such a large number of residents to plant the yews? Are the surviving yews the only ones planted, or were there more - perhaps one on each burgage plot? One suggestion is that they were planted to commemorate the coronation of James I in 1603. It is known that the crown at the time owned about 50 properties in Chipping Campden.