The unique Tandridge Yew shows how a yew can regenerate and live its second life.

More than 1000 years old

This magnificent tree grows close to St. Peters church – very old medieval structure, with oldest parts from the 11th century. There are speculations that here has been standing even older church – but no traces have been found of it.

Nevertheless the yew tree is considerably older than this church – the tree might be approximately 1 700 years old.

Revival

This is not exactly the age of the original tree – the main trunk of it fell down centuries ago. Back then there developed many sprouts from the stump. As the centuries rolled by, sprouts turned each into a large tree and then they fused together, forming a single tree of giant size. Latest published measurement was made in April 2011 – the girth of the tree at 1.3 m height is 11.09 m.

Tandridge Yew is a female tree – it produces fruits every year. The tree has an enormous crown.

The tree has an exotic neighbor – outside the cemetery next to the yew grows a tall Giant Sequoia.

References

1. Yew close to St. Peters church in Tandridge, Monumental Trees. Accessed on May 20, 2011

Tandridge Yew on the map

Location, GPS coordinates:	51.2430 N 0.0323 W
Categories:	Trees
Values:	Biology, Visual
Rating:
Where is located?	Europe, United Kingdom, England, Surrey, 2,4 km south-west from Oxted, in Tandridge, west from St. Peters church
Species:	European Yew (Taxus baccata L.)
Circumference:	11.09 m at 1.3 m height

Landmarks of Surrey

The cultural and natural heritage of Surrey is very diverse. Especially rich is cultural heritage – this county has numerous valuable country houses, church buildings, monuments of industrial architecture. Beautiful are the parks of Surrey, mysterious and surprising – the artificial caves and passages.

Trees

Category includes some of the most impressive and interesting separate trees of the the world. Total number of tree species in the world still is a wild guess – may be 10,000 and may be 100,000 but most likely somewhere in between. Every month there are reported new tree species from the whole world, including the Western Europe.

Recommended books

Yew: A History

The yew is one of the most fascinating and versatile life forms on Earth, botanically rich and intriguing, and culturally almost without comparison. This impressive study of the yew reveals that in history, mythology, religion, folklore, medicine, and warfare, the yew bears timeless witness to a deep relationship with mankind. It is the tree that Darwin often rested beneath and under which he wanted to be buried.

The Ancient Yew: A History of Taxus baccata

The gnarled, immutable yew tree is one of the most evocative sights in the British and Irish language, an evergreen impression of immortality, the tree that provides a living botanical link between our own landscapes and those of the distant past. This book tells the extraordinary story of the yew’s role in the landscape through the millennia, and makes a convincing case for the origins of many of the oldest trees, as markers of the holy places founded by Celtic saints in the early medieval ‘Dark Ages’.