Bowdon

In 1879 A.Ingham wrote his History of Altrincham and Bowden: ‘There are several growing now in the churchyard and one in particular is, judging from calculations made of the growth of such trees, upwards of 800 years old. According to one authority it is even said to be planted in the 7th century. It is a gnarled sturdy looking veteran but much the worse for its 1000 years exposure on the hill top’. The drawing by W.Wilson, showing an internal stem, appeared in The Phytologist, alongside the following: ‘An account of the tree has lately appeared in the newspapers; and it is worthy of remark that there is a curious old yew-tree in Bowden church-yard, Cheshire, which presents an analogous appearance. The rude sketch now sent was taken on the spot. The tree is about 5 feet in diameter in the thinnest part of the trunk, hollow and decayed on the east side. Within the hollow, about 6 feet from the ground, a thick, forked, root-like stem, apparently connected with one of the principal branches, has at some distant period, but subsequent to the decay of the trunk, commenced its downward growth, and is now of considerable thickness. It is covered with its own cortical layers. Behind this there is a smaller separate root, about an inch in diameter, proceeding in a slanting direction from the right to the left’.