South Moreton

February 2003 – Tim Hills: A tree of two fragments, badly damaged by fire in 2002. The leaves above the hottest part of the fire singed. However the living wood on the outside is unscathed and growth from these branches is green and vigorous.
Girth recorded in 2003 was 22′ 0” (671cm) at 1′ and 23′ 11” (729cm) at 3′.
April 2005 – Tim Hills: Visited to check rate of recovery. The uppermost branches on the largest fragment appeared dead. Those lower on the bole dip to the ground and carry thick foliage with much gall in evidence. Branches on the smaller fragment were all alive, though at present with thin foliage.
2007 – Dave Kenny: Yew in a very sorry state indeed, it looks as thought there has been another more recent fire (since the one in 2002). There is much dieback and the whole area around the tree, even inside its hollow trunk, is covered in elder suckers and nettles. Despite all this there is some fresh growth lower on the trunk. Girth measured as approximately 6.73m (22′ 1”) at 0.1m – difficult to be accurate with all the undergrowth and elder suckers.
May 30th 2013 – Peter Norton: One large female yew grows close to the east gate. It is very much improving with healthy green foliage and new shoots covering the crown, although it is still a bit thin above the area of the 2002 fire. The mass of summer foliage noted in 2007 seems to have been cleared. The following girths were noted: 22′ 4” (681cm) at 6” from the ground as taken from the south side of the tree and 22′ 11” 698.5cm) at 1′.