Whatcamefirst, theyewor the church?

I am frequently asked whether the yew tree was first to appear at the edge of a graveyard, or whether the church came first.

Both churches and yew trees are known to reach a great age but it is quite possible in a lot of cases that a yew tree flourished long before a Christian church was built nearby.

Clearly, this indicates some kind of association between the yew and a place of worship, Christian or otherwise.

Because the yew tree was regarded as sacred in pre-Christian times, we can safely assume yew trees were flourishing and perhaps of a great age when the churches appeared on sites previously occupied by pagan places of worship.

One theory is that the evergreen yew was itself worshipped because it represented all that was desired in a person.

It is strong and enduring; it is everlasting and protective, while it also provided wood for weapons – pliable timber from its trunk (not the branches) was ideal for making longbows – and even its scarlet berries are palatable, although their seeds are poisonous.

There are different theories about the reason for the yew’s presence in or near churchyards.

One suggestion is that the dense evergreen foliage provided shelter from the weather and so it was used by travelling missionaries before their churches were built.

Another is that the tree was considered extremely valuable because it provided shelter, wood for weapons and even sustenance through its fruit although its dropped or cut foliage is said to be poisonous to animals.

That meant the yew had to be protected from vandals and thieves, as well as browsing livestock, hence its presence in a place of safety – the churchyard.

It is also claimed that some long avenues of handsome yew trees inspired church architects to design beautiful aisles with stone columns. In 1307, King Edward I ordered that yews be planted in churchyards to protect the churches against strong winds and our medieval ancestors believed that the constant renewal of the evergreen foliage represented resurrection of the body. And apart from all that, these ancient trees do add an air of solemnity to any churchyard.

It was the demand for the yew’s pliable high-quality timber that almost made it extinct in this country.

During the Middle Ages, when battles and wars were regular occurrences, the demand for suitably pliable yew wood to manufacture longbows led to the trees being almost eliminated.

Suitable timber had then to be imported and it is now argued that modern yews do not have the enduring quality of the earlier ones.

Venerable old yews are among the most ancient of our trees, but there is always doubt about which is the oldest yew tree in Britain.

One in the churchyard at Darley Dale, near Matlock in Derbyshire, is claimed to be the oldest in England, being some 2,200 years of age.

Scotland has its famous Fortingall Yew in Perthshire which was once thought to be between 1,500 and 3,000 years old, but now, according to experts, is estimated to be between 2,000 and 3,000 years of age.

It is said that Pontius Pilate played beneath this tree when he was a child growing up in Scotland, his mother being a Scots girl and his father a Roman soldier stationed nearby.

The daddy of them all in Britain is probably the yew in St Dygain’s Churchyard at Llangernyw in North Wales. It is said to be at least 4,000 years old.

Despite links with paganism, Christian churches do make use of the yew’s evergreen foliage as a decoration at Christmas and sometimes around Easter, but in modern times, the medicinal value of its clipped foliage, regarded as poisonous to livestock, does contain a chemical that can be used in chemotherapy for ovarian, breast and prostate cancers, and indeed others.

For this reason, clippings from yew trees are now in demand by the pharmaceutical industry and Britain possesses the greatest collection of these trees in their churchyards. It is the clipped leaves that produce the necessary chemicals but few churches have sufficient yews to make a local harvest viable.

What the manufacturers of cancer treatments wish to locate are places which have around 40 metres of yew hedging that is clipped annually.

Not surprisingly, many of our venerable old yews are now subjected to TPOs – Tree Protection Orders.

It seems our ancestors had good reason to honour or even worship the yew tree.

Flower power

The protection of flowers was highlighted in this paper on April 4, when Spectator noticed someone helping themselves to daffodils growing in Darlington.

This has led to an e-mail from a reader who asks about the legal protection of flowers and other plants, particularly through the use of bylaws.

The main legislation is the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. The part of the Act which concerns wild plants states that it shall be an offence for any person intentionally to uproot any wild plant, except when this is done by an authorised person.

Such “authorised person” may be the owner of the land or someone operating with his or her authority and who would be expected to prove the granting of such authority, perhaps in a document.

It will be seen that this outlaws the uprooting of all wild plants with the exception mentioned above, but the picking of plants growing wild is also subjected to certain controls.

Some are especially protected by bylaws, such as the wild daffodils of Farndale, while the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 protects a range of wild plants and flowers.

These are listed in schedule eight of that statute – too many to detail here – but the list includes almost all wild plants and flowers except the most common.

Picking mushrooms growing wild on any land or the flowers, fruit or foliage of plants growing wild for reward, sale or other commercial purpose is also a crime under the Theft Act of 1968.

It will be seen that the legislation mentioned above relates only to plants and flowers growing wild.

Stealing cultivated flowers and plants may amount to theft or in some cases, criminal damage. Be warned!

DeathWatch

Today is the Feast Day of St Mark which means that yesterday was the Eve of St Mark when there used to be a very curious custom.

It featured a watcher who sat in the church porch at midnight in the hope of seeing the spectral figures of those local folk who would die in the forthcoming year.

One such watcher was James Haw, of Burneston, near Bedale. He watched every year, and there is an account of him watching – and seeing himself in the ghostly procession.

He died within the year.

Riddling chaff in a barn was a similar practice where a woman at Malton saw her own coffin being carried by two men – and she died within the year. I believe similar watchings occurred at some crossroads but I have no record of their results.