Forest of Dean - East Wood

December 2004 – Tim Hills: Three quarters of the circumference comprises new wood flowing over the original bole. The remaining 6′ consists of three gaps which have closed over by about 5′ to create a continuous circle of growth above that height. It supports several thick branches.
Della Hooke, author of Trees in Anglo-Saxon England writes ‘TIDENHAM YEW:A boundary clause attached to a pre-Conquest charter of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, in which King Eadwig granted land there to the abbey of Bath in AD 956, notes as a landmark on the northern boundary of the estate iwdene ‘yew valley’ (Birch 1885-99, B 927; Sawyer 1968, S 610). A large old yew-tree, today know as ‘the King’s Yew’, overlooks a deeply incised valley on the eastern side of East Wood and may even be the tree which gave its name to the valley noted in the tenth-century charter’. Birch, W. de Gray, 1885-99. Cartularium Saxonicum (London). Sawyer, P. H., 1968. Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography London).