Sanderstead

1880 – Straker: Described as growing east of the church, with a girth of 12′ 3” at 5′.
1895 – Lowe: A girth of 11′ 6” at the ground, and 12′ at 3′. Lowe described ‘3 dead branches in the interior. Two trunks united up to 4′, then divided into 6 large branches, apparent height 30′, umbrage 61′.’
2001 – Tim Hills: A bole about 6′ high. From it develop three large areas of growth with healthy foliage. Ivy covered the lower part of the tree and there was some filling of hollow spaces with concrete. I was unable to remeasure at 5′ because of a leaning branch, but recorded 13′ 11” (424cm) at 1′ and 14′ 11” (455cm) at 3′.
In a report in 2009 prepared for the Ancient Tree Initiative, it states that the tree was severely lopped about 5 years ago earlier (2004) and that there were no signs of regrowth. It is almost certain that this drastic action killed the last of Sanderstead’s trio of old yews. In 2009, all that remained was the stump, recorded with a girth of 455cm (14′ 11”) at 3′.