Flax Bourton

January 1998 Tim Hills: According to the Journal of British Archaeology (1857) there was scarcely a churchyard in Somerset without a yew. It named several churchyards in possession of a single yew of ‘considerable magnitude’ and Flax Bourton was included in this number. Perhaps the young yew seen there today was planted to replace the old tree. It is a straight trunked male yew growing at the east end on the south side, in a narrow strip of churchyard next to a busy main road. The tree is only about 2m from the church building. Low branches have been removed to a height of about 8′. Girth was 5′ 2½” (159cm) at 1′, 5′ 1” (155cm) at 2′ and exactly 5′ (152cm) at 3′ in 2015.