The only old description of the Dinder yew may belong to another tree. An 1857 Guide to Minehead and Its Environs, quoted by the Ancient Yew Group, describes a yew of great age and formerly of considerable extent. The trouble is that the Group gives the identical sentence for the yew at Dunster, so it probably cannot be trusted for either. Dinder's tree is left with its measurements and not much else. The measurements are worth having. Tim Hills found 912 centimetres at ground level in 1997, which puts it in the Group's top class of yews over seven metres, ancient by their banding. That is an estimate from girth and not a date. Peter Norton photographed it in 2015. It stands south-east of St Michael and All Angels, a Grade II* church that may stand on a Saxon site. The village is about four kilometres east of Wells, which makes this an easy add-on to a day in the cathedral city. If you know of a better old record, something that names Dinder and not Dunster, tell us. This yew deserves a first mention of its own.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
St Michael and All Angels Church, Dinder, Somerset
You can recognise it as the big yew, over nine metres round at the ground. It stands south-east of St Michael and All Angels church in Dinder.
Village 4km east of Wells; bus from Wells (check). No railway.
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 407 (Tim Hills 1997)
- ancient-yew.org
- en.wikipedia.org