Ancient yew tree

 Ancient yew tree just outside the west door of the church of St Mary in Eastling, this venerable tree is said to be around 2000 years old.

The seventeenth century botanist Robert Turner (Botanologia,1664) discusses yew at some length and proposes a theory on the positioning of yew trees in churchyards, or rather the positioning of churches in relation to the existing trees.

He believed the church should be built to the north or north east of the tree as yews are hot and dry. This is due to the idea the yew tree would trap the gasses released from the church, he writes –

“[yew] will attract poysonous vapours and imbibe them”

These vapours he speaks of are thought to be released by the corpse’s putrefaction and he names them “will o’ the wisps”.

This led people to believe that if you lay under a yew tree you would imbibe the gasses and die.