Broomfield - Somerset

The surviving tree grows close to the south porch. It’s elongated bole, a fragment of a once much larger tree, supports a trimmed canopy. There have been attempts to measure this tree fragment as follows: Rev. Percy G. Bulstrode around 1895: 24′ 4″ at the ground, 16′ at 3′ and a bole height of 4′. Between 1895 and my visit in 2002 a large portion of the tree was lost, for girth was now 18′ 10″ (574cm) at the ground (allowing the tape to ride above the spreading roots) and 19′ (579cm) at the tree’s narrowest point just below 3′. The storm of 1990 must have altered its appearance considerably since Baxter’s Eternal Yew (1992) recorded a height of 50′ and it is now only about half that. Parts of the bole were covered in twiggy growth and during several visits in later years an increase in ivy was noted. During the latest visit in 2016 a girth of 19′ 2” (584cm) was recorded at about 2′ 6”, the tree’s narrowest point above the spreading roots.