The Hawling churchyard yew
In 1936 Arthur Mee called this a gigantic yew. Its modern recorder sees nothing to suggest it has been gigantic in recent times, and the tape backs him. Allen Meredith put it at about 18 feet in 1988. Tim Hills found 549 centimetres in 2003, and by 2014 it was 18 feet 6, about 564 centimetres. Three recorders across 26 years, and the figure has hardly moved. So we report the girth and leave the adjectives to Mee. It is a female yew, hollow, with large spaces inside and an opening on its north-west side. Hills recorded it in vigorous good health in 2003. The Ancient Yew Group's girth bands place it in the ancient class, likely over 500 years, an estimate from size rather than a dating. The setting is half the visit. Hawling is a hamlet near Winchcombe, and the yew stands in the north-west corner of St Edward's churchyard, right on the edge of a vertical drop down to the old dairy. The church has 13th-century sections, with a nave and chancel rebuilt in 1764. A younger female yew grows to the north-east, a reminder that the older one was once that size too.
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Getting there
St Edward's Church, Hawling, near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire GL54 5SZ
You can recognise it by the hollow trunk with an opening on its north-west side, at the edge of a drop to the old dairy. It stands in the north-west corner of St Edward's churchyard; a younger yew grows to its north-east.
Open churchyard (Ancient Yew Group lists access as public; church parochial church council ground). Free, no opening hours.
Hawling, a hamlet near Winchcombe; no regular public transport found; car or taxi.
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.