Charlton Marshall

The following is taken from the Village History: ‘There are lots of yew tees in Charlton Marshall; the biggest and oldest being the one in the north east corner of the church yard. Its girth is about 24 ft (7 metres) and it is certainly older than the church. It’s a tree that ‘parishioners are, or ought to be proud of’ as the Rector wrote in the parish magazine of September 1897. The next March he had to record that ‘the grand old Yew Tree in Charlton Church-yard has suffered very seriously from the snow storm which fell so heavily on the night of February 21st. The whole of the North East side of the tree is now practically destroyed and only one of the large limbs remains’.
January 2010 – Peter Norton: I recorded the yew and found that it measured 20′ (610cm) exactly at just above the ground. Many of its gnarled branches are hollow.
January 2015 – Peter Norton: I re-measured the yew and recorded only 19′ 7” (597cm) at the ground. Either the rotting side has lost some of the outer trunk, or the ground may be lower.