Yew Tree
Taxus baccata, the English Yew, once a mythical
and mystical tree has slowly lost its cultural importance through the passage
of time or because people have changed. Its modern importance, if importance is
the word, is in topiary because of the tree’s ability to withstand severe
pruning and trimming. Some varieties have a columnar habit so are useful for
formal plantings. Yew trees were planted
in British church cemeteries in the past because its longevity represented the
soul as being eternal. Most parts of the plant are toxic, which is also why the
tree was planted in cemeteries. Farmers wouldn’t risk the death of their livestock,
so were vigilant, which protected graves and headstones from being damaged. Insects
are thwarted by the tree, so it was planted beside outside dunnies, ok, proper
English – privies, to keep the flies away. The bright red arils, berries, are
eaten by thrushes and blackbirds so the still poisonous seed is undigested and
so distributed. As a schoolboy, not knowing about the toxicity of the tree, I
ate my share of the berries and luckily spat the seeds out.
If the Romans and other early cultures didn’t
like the idea of a sword or rope to commit suicide, they used Yew foliage or
seed, as a poison. Yew timber was used for making the famous English longbows,
the tension between sapwood and hardwood gave the bow added spring. Most trees
that live for a long time have hard, durable wood, a Yew spearhead found in
Wales has been carbon-dated as being 400 000 years old!
I happened to be staying near the New Forest in
the South of England and read in a brochure that the oldest tree in the forest
was a 1000 year old Yew tree at St. Nicholas Church, Brockenhurst. The New
Forest had been set aside as a hunting ground by and for ancient kings, in 1079
William the Conqueror proclaimed the New Forest as a royal forest, which probably
kept it pristine over the next few centuries.
St. Nicholas Church is in the Brockenhurst Parish
and the area has been a religious place since at least the time of an Augustine
Mission 590 – 600 AD. Records show that by 1160 Brockenhurst had become part of
the great de Reduers field, and the Lord of the Manor was obliged to provide
'littler for the king's bed and fodder for his horse' whenever the king came to the New Forest to hunt. So Norman and
Angevin kings may well have worshiped at St. Nicholas.
Friends took us for a day trip around the New
Forest, to show us some of the mighty trees, and they kept telling about a
'secret location' they wanted to show us. I couldn’t believe my eyes when
we passed a small sign pointing towards St. Nicholas Church. I remembered it
because that was the name of a church on Barrington Street, Christchurch close
to where I grew up. The Yew tree association was uppermost in my mind, but I
didn’t want to spoil our friends’ surprise by mentioning it.
We were indeed going to St. Nicholas church, not
because of the tree but because our friends, on a previous visit, had found a
small New Zealand war cemetery. It is an immaculate, small cemetery for First
World War soldiers who had been injured, or had suffered an illness but had not
survived while being treated at Brockenhurst No.1 New Zealand General Hospital.
Of course we had never heard of the Hospital at Brockenhurst, nor of the
cemetery but it was a privilege for us to be able to honour the men buried
there.
Our friends had no idea that the famous Yew tree
stood in the church grounds but were thrilled that they had been able to let me
see it! It was a simple coincidence. The tree is not an elegant one, but it’s
big as far as Yew trees go! When it
comes to famous trees, measurements are important: In 1793 the girth (circumference)
was measured as fifteen feet, and by 1930 it grown to eighteen feet, at present
the girth is twenty feet. Girth is measured at ‘breast height’, five feet above
the ground in the UK. We must be shorter here in New Zealand because our
standard measurement is diameter at breast height (DBH) which is four feet six
inches above the ground. Rough rule of thumb, diameter is a third of
circumference, so it would be just over six feet in diameter.
When we arrived home a large book arrived
in the mail, it is titled 'New Zealand Graves at Brockenhurst' by Clare Church
and it details the early lives in the way of personal histories of the men buried
there. The book also details the campaigns in which the soldiers fought. There
are one hundred and six graves
in the cemetery, ninety three New Zealand graves, three Indian, perhaps because
before the hospital became under New Zealand jurisdiction, it was Lady
Hardinge's Hospital for Indian troops from the Lahore and Meerut Divisions. There are also the graves of three
unidentified Belgian civilians, workers from the Sopley Forestry Camp. The
book was a gift from our friends.
If I was living in the UK I would probably be
tempted to take cuttings and propagate a few plants. There would be little
value other than for interest sake, but I imagine descendants of those buried
there might like to have a plant. It’s interesting to speculate who planted the
tree, did the ancients propagate trees? Propagation, horticulture had to begin
somewhere, sometime.
There’s a certificate in the church signed by
experts such as David Bellamy, attesting that the tree is over a thousand years
old. Say we accept the seed germinated in the spring of 1000 AD, if it did, the
tree was a sapling of twenty seven years when William the Conqueror was born! Imagine
that!
It is therefore fitting, that St. Nicholas Church
is the place of burial for these men, and it is also fitting that the ancient
Yew tree stands sentinel over the war graves at Brockenhurst.
‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow
old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We shall remember them.’
No comments:
Post a Comment