Heavitree Yew

Nobody will ever know whether this is the tree that gave Heavitree its name. The Ancient Yew Group raises the old idea that the suburb was named for a heafod treow, a head tree where Saxon kings held court, and then says plainly that it will never be known whether this yew was it. That is the honest version, and it is a better story than a false certainty. What is known is enough. Exeter Trees and Shrubs, a local guide, calls it the oldest tree in Exeter, thought to be over 500 years old. That age is their claim, not a measurement, and the trunk is surprisingly slim for it, 307 centimetres at ground level when Tim Hills recorded it in 2004. In 2002 the Tree Council named it one of 50 Great British Trees for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. There has been a church on this site since at least 1152, and the site is thought to be late Saxon, though the present building is 19th century. The tree has needed help. After vehicles drove over its roots, the council arranged in 2019 for tarmac on the south footpath to be lifted and the soil over the roots loosened. It was photographed standing in 2023. It stands near the door of St Michael and All Angels, about two kilometres east of the city centre.