Research

How old are our yew trees?

Including dendrochronology and scientific reports

Surveys of non-churchyard yews

We have brought together the results of painstaking work recording yews in woodland and other non-churchyard settings.

Lost yews

The earlies written record of a lost yew dates from 1633, when the yew at Yatton Keynell in Wiltshire was destroyed because ‘the clerk lop’t it to make money of it to some bowyer or fletcher, and that lopping kill’d it: the dead trunke remains there still.’
We have a record of about 440 ‘lost’ yews sites and the collected accounts will be published on this page during 2024.

Recorded  yew  girth measurements

Peer reviewed papers, theses and dissertations

British, European and world-wide research papers on yew

Tree Register newsletter articles

The Tree Register of the British Isles (TROBI) sponsors the Ancient Yew Group by providing the framework for this website. TROBI has published a newsletter since 1990 and many of the Ancient Yew Group’s contributions are included on this page.

The yew in literature

Here we have included the most recent yew publications, a list of the contents of yew related literature between 1897 and 2002 and some poetry.

Yews in Europe

A chapter from Fred Hageneder’s  Yew – a history considers the distribution and protection of European yew. Yews in Spain and France also feature.