There is no reason for doubting that there were a variety of reasons
for yews appearing in churchyards. There were yews before churchyards. I
threw in the secondary reference to building a churchyard round a yew.
Subsequently though the presence of yews in churchyards through many
centuries must have involved some measure of local assent.
The Kingsley Vale to which I gave the reference was known by Caxton, who I
suspect was quoting in turn from Higden and Trevisa as being the great yew
forest (over half the yews in the entire country) of England.
Not all longbows were made of yew; only the best, used by professional
bowmen. Yews were planted in medieval French churchyards for bows by order,
and indeed they were planted in English ones for the same reason. There are
I
believe edicts from the reign of Elizabeth i.e. late c.16th to this effect.
Like so many well-meaning economic policies adopted by Tudor governments
concerning self-sufficiency it was flawed. The need for longbows was on the
wane courtesy of firearms, and petered out by the end of the c.17th. However
there is a case for saying that the reason those trees or their seedlings
are still there is because they were planted for longbows. They were never
used.
Timber in those days was a major economic resource and there was a
degree of Centrally Planned Economy about its management. Medieval
Communism. I have heard it called a religion...! Whether the first yews
in the first churchyards were there for the same reason is another matter.
One of the things I have often wondered is what the English landscape really
looked
like. I suspect the trees looked very different from the Constable images
we like to call up what with all those tops & lops & grubs and stubs...
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Spice <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 09, 1999 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: Yew trees in Churchyards
> Coming back to this subject, I have done a little rethinking and
> researching, and it shows how well-established possibly erroneous concepts
> can become. Previously I was quite convinced that yews were planted in
> English churchyards to ensure a supply of bows. After reading all comments
> on this list, and realising that the yew tree must be cut down to make
bows,
> the old trees in churchyards do not fit into this harvesting pattern. To
> maximise bow stave supply would require the tree cut down as soon as the
> trunk was big enough to make bows. Humans are very practical beings, so I
> now accept that there were other reasons to have yews, especially ones
that
> were hundreds of years old.
> Dr. Paul Spice.
>
>
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