‘Wilmington Yew III [Stump #259]’, monoprint & pencil, 20cm x 25cm

One-off monoprint — only one available

 

Thought to be 1,600 years old & the oldest in England,

The Wilmington Yew sits in the churchyard cemetery of Wilmington, not far from Eastbourne.

The Woodland Trust placed the ancient tree on its England Tree of the Year shortlist in 2020 [it was beaten to the prize by a Hawthorn in Dumfries & Galloway, but I’m not sure the Yew is that bothered tbh…]

The 1850 Sussex Archaeological Collections pages 65/66 quote: ‘Its age can not be less than that of the ecclesiastical fabrics of which it is the appropriate companion. An old man of 85 once told me that he had known it for 75 years, and in his earliest recollection its appearance did not differ materially from that which it now presents. Here we have three-quarters of a century scarcely effecting a visible change, and a gauge wherewith to measure roughly its great age. Its gnarled and magnificent double stem is really a study for the painter. At 3ft. 3in. above the ground, where the stem divides, as is common with this kind of tree, its girth is 20 feet. One half of the trunk has become hollow. To the first large branch is 10½ feet, the length of the largest branch is 33 feet, and the ground which the tree covers—chiefly to the east side, for on the west it has been stunted and driven back by the violence of our prevailing winds—is about 250 square yards, or a circuit of 168 feet. In former ages it has been sadly and wantonly maimed. Whoever wanted a piece of yew wood, or wished to gratify a destructive caprice, seems to have applied the saw and the knife without mercy.’

Churchwarden John Marshall has now tended the Wilmington Yew for over 25 years,

having recently overseen a complete replacement of the telegraph poles which prop up several of its vast branches on one side.