The Ashbrittle yew grows on top of a mound that may be a Bronze Age burial barrow. Nobody has proved it. The mound is about one and a half metres high and fifteen across, it sits south-east of the church of St John the Baptist on its hilltop, and a few headstones stand round its edge. Whatever is underneath, the yew has claimed it. Its girth is enormous. The Ancient Yew Group recorded 12.17 metres at five centimetres off the ground,. For that size the Group's banding suggests well over 1,000 years. Wikipedia repeats a belief that it is over 3,000, and you will meet bolder figures still. None of them is a dating, and we do not repeat them as fact. In 2002 the Tree Council chose it as one of 50 Great British Trees for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Local folklore gives it another reputation. It says a childless couple who visit its base will conceive within a year. In 2015 the Church Times reported it looking under the weather, and it was still standing then. It is a long way out, a hilltop village west of Wellington with no regular bus, and the drive is the price of standing next to it.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
St John the Baptist Church, Ashbrittle, Somerset
You can recognise it by the grassy mound it grows on, about 15 metres across, with a few headstones round its edge. It stands south-east of the church of St John the Baptist.
Remote hilltop village west of Wellington, Somerset; no railway, no regular bus found (check). Drive.
In fruit
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: Ancient Yew Group database, tree ID 255 (Tim Hills 1997)
- ancient-yew.org
- en.wikipedia.org
- churchtimes.co.uk