Wateringbury - churchyard

A well documented yew, growing close to the new church porch. Chains placed around the tree to prevent it pulling apart are being swallowed in new wood.
Taken from ‘Church Detectives’ June 1952: About 1900 an old inhabitant, Richard Newman, died in the workhouse after a long and hard life. He was born in 1820 and learned to read and write at the Sunday School, and practised writing by copying out inscriptions on the tombstones in the churchyard. When he was old and failing he copied them all into a book, and one stone, which has since disappeared, told the story of the yew tree: FRIENDS ALL AS YOU LOOK / AT THIS YEW TREE / WAS PLANTED HERE BY ME / ON THE 2ND OF JANUARY / ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED / AND NINETY-SEVEN / BY THOMAS HOOD.