The Downe Yew

In 1832 a visitor named Glynne, writing up St Mary's church in Downe, called its yew 'a very fine yew'. A church note published by the Kent Archaeological Society goes further and records 'one very ancient Yew tree to the south of the church porch'. It is still there, in the churchyard of the village where Charles Darwin made his home at Down House. What neither note gives is a number. Nobody has published a measured girth or a dated age for this tree. Bigger claims for both circulate online, but none we have found comes with a source we trust, so we leave the age blank rather than borrow one. If you know of a measurement, or you have one, tell us. What we can say is that it was one of the original 41 Great Trees of London, the list Trees for Cities drew up of the capital's remarkable trees, and that it appears to be alive. A naturalist's record from October 2025, made close by, may well be this tree. Downe looks like a Kent village and feels a long way from London, but it sits inside the London Borough of Bromley, which is how a country churchyard yew ends up on a list of the city's trees. The churchyard is free and open to visitors. There is no station in the village. Take a train to Orpington or Bromley South and a local bus from there, and combine it with Down House, a short walk away.