Melbury Sampford

August 2009 – Owen Johnson: I measured the yew by the chapel as 533cm girth at 0.3m on a very clean but forking trunk, on the SE side of what used to be Melbury Sampford parish church. My guess is that the yew was already there at this time though as the site is so very good for tree growth it may not be as old as the size suggests.
The yew was recorded by Alan Mitchell in 1989. His notes state ‘534cm, but forking’.
Loudon’s Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum (1838) describes ‘a tree at Melbury Park, Dorset, planted 200 yrs and has a 3ft Diameter’. If this is the same tree, a planting date of about 1638 would make it 374 years old in 2012. This is rapid growth.
2012 Peter Norton: The tree grows east of the church and girthed 17′ 8” (538cm) at 1′ and 17′ 11” (546cm) at 2′ from the top of the slope. There is a break of crown at about 7′ then two leaders with semi-sparse foliage.