In short
Today the ancient yew at Kingston St Mary Church is not a single tree anymore – long ago its trunk was divided by a hollow and now it has several separately standing trunks. The circumference around them is 10.03 m.
26.3%
GPS coordinates
Location, address
Species
Circumference
Map of the site
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In detail
The medieval St Mary Church in Kingston was constructed around 1225. The church has a prominent, beautiful tower that was constructed around 1490ies or a bit later.
Most likely, the ancient yew tree southwest of the church was a giant tree in earlier times. Now it has been divided into four to five separate parts. This is characteristic of ancient yews – they get hollowed out until the hollow divides the tree into several parts. Nevertheless, these parts continue to grow and the yew still looks like a single tree from afar.
In such cases the girth is measured around all these parts, even is each of these parts (to some extent) now lives its own life.
References
- Yew/Yews at Kingston St.Mary England, Ancient Yew Group. Accessed on December 29, 2023
Linked articles
Wonders of Somerset
Somerset is very rich in cultural heritage and here it is not that easy to make a shortlist of the most outstanding landmarks. Highlights of Somerset are churches, late medieval and Renaissance manor houses, and the exciting Cheddar Gorge and caves in Mendip Hills.
Trees
The category includes some of the most impressive and interesting separate trees in the world. The total number of tree species in the world still is a wild guess – maybe 10,000 and maybe 100,000 but most likely somewhere in between. Every month there are reported new tree species from the whole world, including Western Europe.
Wonders of England
The natural and cultural wonders of England are very diverse and here are found some of the world’s most impressive landmarks in several categories, such as churches and museums.
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’.
