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'Sorrow', 'Perspective', 'Omen of Doom', 'Immortality' – it can be found in churchyards and cemeteries.
Also both 'Death' and 'Eternal Life' in Greece!
The Common Yew is Britain's longest-lived native tree.
There are remains at Fortingall, Scotland, that are thought to be over 2000 years old. These are hollow and therefore lack dateable rings and in any case this tree does not produce a ring every year.
Planted on plague graves for purification and protection.
The Romans believed it grew in Hell.
Norse and Celtic people thought it prevented bewitching and death.
Christians believed its poison protected the dead.
Branches are carried on Palm Sunday and at funerals.
The trees were used to make the famous English and Welsh Longbows of the successful battles of Crécy (26/8/1346), Poitiers (19/9/1356) and Azincourt/Agincourt (25/10/1415). Our archers could fire 12 arrows a minute, far faster than the Genoese (French) crossbow mercenaries.
At Twyford Churchyard, there is a Yew tree over a thousand years old.
According to folklore, an ancient Yew in Great Pepsells Field at Furneux Pelham (North Hertfordshire) grew a few feet from an ancient Roman road, and by the 18th century the trunk had split and steps had been set inside for a stile, to allow people to walk through the tree. At this time, the tree is believed to have been around 1500 years old. In the 1830s, while removing the stump and roots to create more arable land, farm labourers discovered golden objects within the roots, which some claimed were from a dragon's lair – at Brent Pelham Church lies the tomb of 'Piers Shonks', whose Latin inscription refers to the slaying of a dragon!
Ancient people regarded the yew tree as a portal to an unknown world.
In the Irish tale of Deirdre of the Sorrows, two yew trees grew from the grave of the heroine Deirdre and intertwined in a strong lock over the roof of St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.
In Irish, 'Migh Eo' in County Mayo means 'the fertile plain of the Yew tree.'
In King Raedwald's ship burial at Sutton Hoo in the 7th century AD, there are two buckets made from this wood, that survived all that time without rotting.
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