"When I first recognise it, there’s a sharp intake of breath. Surely that isn’t one tree? It’s so big and so part of its curtilage that its textured countenance seems to be locked into the ground. I can’t see a way into the heart of it. I move closer and find a gap in the canopy, but instantly I’m rejected. My bag snags on a fallen branch that rises from the leaf mould like a briny serpent. This tree is a labyrinth - it’s testing me." The Yew Tree at Llanfair Kilgeddin.
I have to admit, I'm drawn to yew trees as much as I am to churches. On some sites the yew predates the church and might have possibly been the original object of ritualistic devotion.
Visiting an ancient yew tree is both an emotive and a spiritual experience which is hard to put into words. Curiously, at every tree that I've visited, I've been able to put my worldly worries to one side and exist in the present.
The tree has a wisdom that is exonerated by its survival - its great gnarled branches are witness to every type of human idiom known to man. In the twist of its growth there is a truth and purity that nobody can object to or deny or plagiarise or deceive.
Here are some of the ancient yews that I've visited along my travels. When I visit any more, I'll add them here - just in case you might want to visit and experience them.
Norbury, Derbyshire
Walk through the gate into the churchyard and you see two ancient artefacts - the medieval church on the left and the ancient yew on the right.
The tree is a fair size - about the same size and spread as other trees that I've come across that are verified to be over 1000 years old. It was described as 'ancient and majestic' in 1899 in a directory description.
What makes this tree distinctive is it's setting against the church and surrounding landscape.
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Access and Parking
Park to the right in front of the church gates. Parking is limited, and there's a tight turn into the road. I got there early and had no problem parking.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
More posts on the church at Norbury
Gilwern, Monmouthshire
This is a remarkable ring of trees that surrounds the church of St. Elli's in the village of Gilwern in Monmouthshire.
There is a single tree that you can stand inside and there are curious artefacts inside or dotted about the trees. The trees are said to be 800 years old.
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Access and Parking
You can park right next door to the church near to the Telephone Box. Parking is free.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
More posts on Pennant Melangell.
Pennant Melangell
There are four yew trees that lie within the churchyard at St. Melangell's (pronounced Melangeth) in Pennant Melangell in Powys, Wales.
Curiously they edge the boundary which originates in Bronze Age times. One tree is split wide open revealing the inside bole. Another has a fissure that looks as though it has a figure inside.
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Access and Parking
You can park right next door to the church. Parking is free.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
More posts on Pennant Melangell.
Breamore
The yew at Breamore (pronounced Bremmer) is situated alongside the path to the remarkable Anglo Saxon church.
From a distance it looks like it stems from a vast trunk, but it is actually made up from several trunks that rise like a cupped hand from the ground. You can climb inside this tree and sense its history.
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Access and Parking
You can park right next door to the church. Parking is free.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
Crowhurst
St. George, Crowhurst East Sussex.
How do you go about photographing such a thing of beauty? It is a building, a biota and a time-capsule.
I can't really remember the photography - the tree drew me in and for several minutes I felt like a puppet on strings with my camera in hand.
The tree brought about a kind of focused frenzy on the minutiae. There are so me words in Alice Munro's "The Lives of Girls and Women" that touch upon the spirit of the day:
“…for what I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pane, crack, delusion, held still and held together, radiant, everlasting."
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Access and Parking
Parking is tricky. I managed to park south of the church on a grass bank besides the church.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
Dunsfold
My visit to St. Mary and All Saints in Dunsfold, Surrey was full of anxiety.
It was my first trip out after the lock down. I was experiencing a kind of agoraphobia which didn't work well within the rolling fields of Surrey. It took me a several months and some online therapy to help me work through the feelings. My visit to Dunsfold helped me get purchase on my anxious thoughts.
The male yew stands close to the south porch of the church and is reputed to be 700 years old. Not far away is another male yew tree planted in 1977 to commemorate 25 years of the Queen's reign.
Access to the churchyard is, rather appropriately, via a yew tunnel.
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Access and Parking
Parking is tricky. I managed to park south of the church on a grass bank besides the church.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Llanfair Kilgeddin
A remarkable tree at St. Mary the Virgin, Llanfair Kilgeddin, Monmouthshire. I'll just leave you with some words from my diary:
"Along the churchyard boundary is a yew. Its great size has made it invisible — the boundary is enshrined in flecks of green and, through most of the day, the yew is camouflaged, part of a mass of trees to the south. When I first recognise it, there’s a sharp intake of breath. Surely that isn’t one tree? It’s so big and so part of its curtilage that its textured countenance seems to be locked into the ground. I can’t see a way into the heart of it. I move closer and find a gap in the canopy, but instantly I’m rejected. My bag snags on a fallen branch that rises from the leaf mould like a briny serpent. This tree is a labyrinth — it’s testing me."
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Access and Parking
Parking is limited. There are a couple of parking spaces on the lane/verge next to the church.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Multimedia
Read the story behind my visit to this yew tree.
Watton at Stone
I parked up the camper right outside the flint tower of St. Andrew and St. Mary at Watton-at-Stone in Hertfordshire. The tree is to the north east of the chancel. This tree has a vast, spreading canopy which reaches out horizontally along the churchyard. The bowl is a solid mass of tangled branches and vine.
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Access and Parking
I managed to park right outside the west tower in the grounds of the church.
Google Maps
Link to location on Google Maps
Other Stuff
Whilst I was at Watton at Stone I came across a lovely door and sketched it.
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