Tag: ancient

Symbol of the Month – the yew tree

On By shadowsflyawayIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

A few fine yew trees in St Margaret’s churchyard, Rochester. © Carole Tyrrell

They are the sentinels of the silent cities, standing tall and spreading out their branches to shade the last resting places of the permanent residents.  Yew trees can often be older than the churches which they nestle beside in the churchyard and may predate Christianity as many churches were built on pagan sites of worship. In fact there are reputed to be at least 500 yew trees of this vintage!  And incredibly, there are 10 yew trees in Britain that are believed to predate the 10th century.

These venerable trees have many associations and traditions.  I will try and concentrate on a few but they are usually associated with churchyards and burial grounds. The most common one is that they are nourished by the decaying bodies beneath them and, as they can grow up to 20 metres high, this could seem plausible.  Another tradition states that yews were planted on plague victims graves to protect and purify them – if this were true than some churchyards would resemble a forest!

Another common tradition is that they were planted to prevent ‘commoners’ from grazing their cattle on church ground.  This was because yews are very poisonous to livestock.  The needles are deadly, and Shakespeare used this in Macbeth when the three witches conjure up a deadly brew that contains, amongst other unpleasant ingredients:

‘Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,’

However, the Celts saw the yew as a symbol of immortality, death and resurrection. The yew’s drooping branches are able to root and form new trunks where they touch the ground.  The one at St James in Cooling was living inside its dead ancestor which demonstrates its ability to renew itself.

Ancient yew tree in St James, Cooling, Kent © Carole Tyrrell

Another ancient yew with a new tree growing inside the old one. © Carole Tyrrell

In fact, they are one of the most long lived trees in Western Europe but are not considered ancient until at least 900 years old.  The oldest tree in Scotland, and possibly Europe, is the magnificent Fortingall yew in Glen Lyon.  It has been suggested that it is over 2000 years old and maybe even 9000 years old.  It has numerous legends attached to it and in 1769 was reputed to have a girth of over 56ft.  In 1854, funeral processions were reputed to be able to pass through the arch formed by its split trunk.  The yew in St Cynog’s churchyard in Wales is a mere stripling at a reputed 5000 years old. One of the world’s oldest surviving wooden artifacts is a yew spear head which is estimated to be around 450,000 years old. They are evergreens with red berries which although are edible, the seed in the berry is extremely dangerous.

Fortingall Yew in 2011 ©Paul Hermans. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

A trunk of the Fortingall Yew. ©Mogens Engelund Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

One of my favourite churchyards is that of St Marys in Painswick, Gloucestershire.  It has 99 clipped yew trees but according to Roy’s blog post, attempts to grow a 100th tree have always failed.  They are a dramatic sight to see!

The scenic avenue of 99 yew trees at St Mary’s Painswick ©Carole Tyrrell

I must admit that I would feel disappointed if I visited a churchyard and didn’t see a tall, majestic yew or two keeping watch over the dead as potent symbols of resurrection and immortality.

© Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated

References and further reading

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/01/ancient-yew-trees/

https://tree2mydoor.com/pages/information-trees-tree-directory-yew-trees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortingall_Yew oldest yew tree in Britain.

Highgate Cemetery mourns loss of 200-year-old cedar tree which ‘felt like the death of a relative’

On By shadowsflyawayIn Cemetery Stories2 Comments

Trees in cemeteries can live to ripe old ages and this tree in Highgate Cemetery predated the cemetery. It was a towering and beautiful presence within Highgate and I shall miss it.

This article is from London’s evening standard 10 August 2019

The Cedar of Lebanon has been cut down due to safety concerns ( Dr Ian Dungavell )

Locals are mourning the loss of a beloved tree which has stood at the centre of Highgate Cemetery for nearly 200 years.

The majestic Cedar of Lebanon has been in the middle of the site’s west side since its inception in the 1830s, bearing witness to hundreds of burials in that time.

Despite best efforts to keep it alive, the mighty cedar has been condemned by tree surgeons, amid fears it could collapse.

The decision was eventually made to cut it down, in what one trustee compared to the feeling of losing a “much-loved relative”.

Dr Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Trust, told the Standard: “It was a bit like switching off the life system on a much-loved relative. This tree has seen so much.”

Staff at the cemetery had started to notice fungus on the tree, which has survived a lightning strike and deep winters throughout its life.

The tree is based above the Lebanon Catacombs (Rex Features)

Experts were called in, who said that large sections were beyond saving.

Dr Dungavell said they “did not want to believe” the report but took the decision to trust the experts.

One tree surgeon involved in cutting the Cedar down even visited the site to bid farewell to the tree before work commenced to remove it.

Meanwhile, volunteers were invited to visit and to witness it in its final days before it was felled.

“For any tree it’s upsetting if its been around for that period of time,” said Dr Dungavell, referencing the other longstanding trees at the site.

“It’s hard not to anthropomorphise them, to think, ‘what have they seen?'”

Sheldon Goodman, a tour guide and curator of the Cemetery Club website, also expressed his sadness at the situation.

“I’m a cemetery lover so the precedence this tree had is amplified in me, but knowing it’s fate, although unavoidable and necessary, doesn’t dispel that a little bit of London’s history is dying with it. You watch from the sidelines, powerless to do anything,” he told the Standard.

“Seeing the circle without the Lebanon would be like seeing Pisa without the tower, or Sydney without the bridge. The architecture becomes a nonsense without it.”

Mr Goodman said the Cedar deserved recognition as a famous tree of London, as he felt it was somewhat a “hidden secret”.

“It’s a guardian that has fallen on its sword and it’s silently watched over the fortunes of the cemetery for so many years; to see it succumb to disease and a climate it hadn’t really evolved for is such a shame,” he said.

The Cedar of Lebanon is based above the Lebanon Catacombs, which contain a number of burials in lead-lined coffins.

It is described as being like a “giant bonsai”, due to its unique placement and was part of the site when the land was part of Ashurst House, which was sold in 1830.

Dr Dungavell said a collapse would have been “horrific”, if branches had fell and smashed into them.

As well as being a constant presence in the cemetery and viewed by thousands of visitors in person, the tree has also been seen on screen.

Most recently it featured in the film Hampstead, with Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson sharing a picnic underneath its towering branches.

The west side of the cemetery is the site of hundreds of burials, including the private tomb of late music star George Michael.

Each side of the cemetery attracts thousands of visitors each year, with large numbers visiting the east side to see the final resting place of philosopher Karl Marx.