Forests of Imagination

Book Recommendations

The Sacred Yew
Rediscovering the ancient Tree of Life through the work of Allen Meridith

Anand Chetan and Dianna Brueton

Penguin isbn 0140194762

A really good book, including a Gazetteer of Ancient Yew trees in the back. There is also a Recorded Planting, dates and growth of some yew trees from Allen Meredith’s research. In the introduction, Chetan and Brueton write, “This book is about a tree and a man. The tree, or rather trees in question are yews. Taxus Baccata and some have been growing where they stand for at least 5,ooo years.
The man, Allen Meridith, has given much of his life, come rain or shine, to increase the knowledge of his species, the yew.”
“ Allen’s life has become a joyous pilgrimage into facts which surround the yew. This tree is the Tree of Death, being poisonous and standing as so many of them do at the gate of the churchyard, but it is also the Tree of Life, for if allowed to grow it appears to be almost immortal and is known to contain the power to help at least stave off the effects of cancer.”

I used the Gazetteer to look for some of the yew trees in Shropshire, a couple of years ago, in Middleton Sriven and Church Preen, where the Gazetteer had recorded a planting date of AD 457. The weather was misty and wet, in some ways a suitable atmosphere, but not ideal for recording the yews in photographic form.

The yew trees at Middleton Sriven were pretty hard to see from the country road, and we needed to dodge under a fence and scramble around to get to them. The wood of a yew tree is quite amazing close up. There are ripples of colour running through the trunks that seem to flow like energy, from a pink to yellow and rich red brown.
A definite pungent, recognisable scent and the deep pile of needles underfoot met us as we took in the venerable old trees.

At Addington in Kent, where I go on my solitary retreats, there was an old very overgrown yew tree in the church yard. It was hard to make out how big the original tree was, as there was a younger trunk still growing well on one side. Now they have cleared the brambles and undergrowth, and I could see that indeed this had been an enormous yew tree and must be some age. I will take a tape and measure it next time I am there.
In the Seeker’s Trust Wood there are quite a few yew trees, some have their branches meeting the ground around them, it is always a strange experience being inside this circle of growth.

In The Sacred Yew, there is a chapter about the name yew. The word yew being relatively modern.

Common roots include,
Old English iw, eow, ih, ioh, and eoh.
Old Saxon ih, iw, eow.
Old Norse yr.
Celtic yewar, ure.
Middle English ew, u.
Early modern English yewe, yegh, eugh, yowe
Welsh yw, yreu-yw.

Some place names that are thought to have taken their name from the yew include;
Eridge Sussex, ( yew ridge )
Ewell, Surrey, ( yew well )
Ilford. Sussex ( yew vale )
Ivegill, Cumbria ( valley of the yew )
Yeovil Somerset, ( place of the dwellers on the river Ivel on whose banks yews grow.