Why yews in churchyards

Good news But the poison in yews is not always bad news. The Bathurst Estate in Cirencester is shielded by the largest yew hedge in the world, planted in and standing 12m 40ft high and 45m ft wide. It takes two gardeners around two weeks to trim it every August and the cuttings are used to help produce a chemotherapy drug to tackle ovarian, lung and breast cancer because the taxanes stop new, unwanted cells forming.

The Bathurst hedge shields a vast estate from view in Cirencester. Fighting yew Yew trees were vital for English soldiers. The strong but flexible branches were cut into bows taller than a man and were strung with hemp or flax to create powerful weapons with a range of metres capable of launching arrows that could pierce chain mail.

Longbow skills were taken seriously. From onwards, by law, men had to practise their archery. Fake news But English longbows were not made solely from yews harvested in churchyards. A single tree only provides enough wood for five bows, and the fact that many trees survive in churchyards suggests the opposite.

In fact, through medieval and Tudor times we imported forests of the stuff from the rest of Britain, Ireland, then northern and Baltic states and eastern Europe. When supplies from all these sources ran out during the reign of Elizabeth I, armies switched to less reliable and inaccurate new-fangled firearms. The new yew It seems we have yews in churchyards because, well, they never left.

According to the label on a yew tree at Kew Gardens, the Druids regarded the yew tree as sacred and planted it close to their temples and other places of worship.

Early Christians often built their churches on these consecrated sites, and so the association of yew trees with churchyards was perpetuated. In August , The Times reported that a yew tree in the churchyard at Coldwaltham, West Sussex, had been confirmed as one of the oldest trees in England … probably planted around 1, BC by Druids.

Jennifer Chandler suggests that yew trees were planted in graveyards because they thrived on corpses and Robert Turner, writing in , suggested that yew trees absorbed the vapours produced by putrefaction. The volume of yew wood needed for war archery from the early 13th to the late 16th century was far too great to be supplied by from trees grown in churchyards. February 19, February 19, renegade 2 Comments. Sharper Knowlson From The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs [] There are many theories to account for the ancient practice of planting churchyards and cemeteries with yew trees.

Share now! Tuesday — The Day of Tiu April 23, renegade 1. The Druids January 3, renegade 1. Notify of. Inline Feedbacks. Jennifer Chandler suggests that yew trees were planted in graveyards because they thrived on corpses and Robert Turner , writing in , suggested that yew trees absorbed the vapours produced by putrefaction. From the very earliest ages, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them.

The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a lot of money and made the Church far wealthier than any king of England at the time.

The Church had immense wealth and political power and beginning in the midth century the Church also developed the capability to generate military power for its own religious purposes. The volume of yew wood needed for war archery from the early 13th to the late 16th century was far too great to be supplied by from trees grown in churchyards. After all of the yew stands in Britain and Ireland had been depleted, the English crown began to import yew wood from all over Europe including Austria, Poland and Russia.