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Oxford Botanic Garden

Nearest town: Oxford

Site type: garden

Access: Public

Church name: No Data

Diocese: No Data

County: Oxfordshire

Country: England

Grid ref: SP5199906029

Lost yew site: Yes

Date visited: 27-Nov-14

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: No data

Yews recorded at this site: Lost, Notable

Notes: The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621. A plan drawn in 1675 shows two yews. Also in the garden was 'a double yew hedge, which extended from the principal gateway to the opposite extremity, and of a similar one, which ran from east to west, intersecting the former at right angles. Between these hedges the public were allowed to walk, and there was at one time a thoroughfare into Christ Church meadow through the centre. But the square plots of ground enclosed within these hedges, which contained the plants, appear to have been less easy of access, and to have been kept under lock and key. Of these hedges, the one which extended across the garden from east to west was cut down in the time of the younger Dr. Sibthorp; whilst the other, which divided the garden longitudinally, remained standing till the year 1834; when, having lost much of its former beauty, and being in the way of the new arrangements, it shared the same fate. The two large yews, which in Bobart's time were clipped, according to the taste of the day, and the fashion of Dutch gardening, so as to represent two giants guarding the entrance to the garden on the side of the meadow, have been suffered to remain'. Oxford Botanic Garden - Daubeny 1853