DEAN GREEN TEAM Wildlife Conservation Group in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire |
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In the forest we have the King Yew which is one of the largest and oldest of Yews in our country. Ian Standing in his article on "interesting and notable trees of Dean" New Regard 2019 lists this and says " probably several hundred years old" but quotes Mitchell's (1974) formula for dating Yews - that with a girth of 20ft.+ a tree may be 800 -1,000 years old. He states that at 22ft. girth the King Yew is the stoutest yew in west Gloucestershire.
The Yew Map Register has more information and speculates that this yew may be the boundary yew mentioned in the "boundary clause attached to a pre-Conquest charter of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, in which King Eadwig granted land there to the abbey of Bath in AD 956, notes as a landmark on the northern boundary of the estate iwdene i.e. yew valley "