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Albury - Estate

Nearest town: Guildford

Site type: planted avenue

Access: Private

Church name: No Data

Diocese: No Data

County: Surrey

Country: England

Grid ref: withheld

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 2-May-06

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: Owner

Yews recorded at this site: Notable

Notes: A line of yews thought to have been planted by Evelyn in the late 17th century. Today we find a mixture of original trees, stumps and some replacement plantings. The site is part of the Duke of Northumberland Estate and not open to the public. The 1911 History of the County of Surrey has the following: The famous John Evelyn, in 1667, at the request of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk, 'designed the plot of the canal and garden, with a crypt through the hill.' Although the canal has been drained, a terrace of beautiful green sward, about a quarter of a mile in length, remains, together with the 'crypt,' and a wonderful yew hedge, 'or rather,' as Cobbett writes, 'a row of small yew trees, the trunks of which are bare for about 8 or 10 ft. high, and the tops of which form one solid head of about 10 ft. high, while the bottom branches come out on each side of the row about 8 ft. horizontally. This hedge or row,' he adds, 'is a quarter of a mile long'.