Lytchett Matravers Yew
The first written record of this yew is in a Post Office Directory of 1855, a book printed to help people find tradesmen and addresses. It is a modest debut for a tree the Ancient Yew Group now classes as ancient. The measurements are steady. Tim Hills recorded 21 feet 3 and 21 feet 10 just above five feet in 1999, and the Group's current figure is 648 centimetres at 30 centimetres. Yews between five and seven metres fall in its band of probably more than 600 years. That is an estimate from girth, and you will find much bolder claims online, 1,600 years or a planting in AD 590. Nobody has dated it, and we do not repeat those as fact. The church of St Mary the Virgin is Grade I and dates from about 1200, so even the cautious estimate puts the tree in the same company as the building. It grows on the north-west side of the church, close to the north door. Bring your eye for a second yew. A much younger tree grows nearby, 11 feet 10 inches round in 2011, which would be impressive anywhere else and is easily mistaken for the old one. The ancient yew is the larger, by about ten feet of girth.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
St Mary the Virgin Church, Lytchett Matravers, Dorset
You can recognise it as the larger of two yews by the north door, about 6.5 metres round against the younger yew's 3.6. It stands north-west of St Mary the Virgin church.
Village northwest of Poole; local bus from Poole (check). Drive easier.
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.