Stoke Gabriel

1836: Girth of 13′ 8” recorded by J.C.Loudon.
1893: Girth if 14′ 5” recorded by E.Swanton
1944: Girth of 16′ 2” recorded by V.Cornish
1959: Girth of 16′ 5” recorded by Alan Mitchell
1982: Girth of 16′ 7” recorded by Alan Mitchell.
1988: Girth of 16′ 6” at 1′ recorded by Allen Meredith.
1989: A certificate giving the yew an estimated age of 850 sent to the church by the Conservation Foundation.
March 1999 Tim Hills: One of the best documented yews. Its well maintained circular wall allows it an uninterrupted space in which to grow. The bole has a pale appearance, with little evidence of the more usual redness. Branches by the path change direction of growth abruptly. Girths of 16′ 8″ (508cm) at 1′ and 17′ 5″ (531cm) at 3′ recorded.
Peter Norton – March 2015: The tree has an associated traditional rhyme which claims to provide a way in which wishes can be fulfilled: ‘Walk ye backward round about me, seven times round for all to see; Stumble not and then for certain, one true wish will come to thee’. The female tree grows west of the north porch and is surrounded by a large ornamental stone wall. The first glimpse from the lychgate does not prepare you for the magnitude of the limbs snaking along the ground, many having to be supported and many having been contorted and twisted into strange serpentine shapes. One south facing branch is supported by a steel hawser that has been bolted through the branch and disappears high into the canopy and around one of the main leaders.
Girths were recorded as 17′ 0” (518cm) at 18″, 17′ 2″ (523cm) at 1′ and 17′ 6″ (533cm) at 3′.