Waverley Abbey

1983: Mrs P.E.Kaye recorded a girth of 21′ 3” (648cm) measured at its narrowest point. In a letter to Allen Meredith she described it as having “a root system like none other I’ve seen. It resembles dozens of writhing snakes and has an eerie effect. It’s huge at the base.”
1994: The girth of 21′ is recorded in Chetan and Brueton’s The Sacred Yew.
December 1998 – Tim Hills: A tree much photographed for its unusual root structure. How it came to be growing where it is remains a mystery.
August 2006 – visited by 38 members of Eibenfreunde (Friends of the Yew) as part of their 10 day study of the finest yew sites in Southern England.