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> From: Ron Hornsby [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > > There are many more yew trees in the churchyard but > their location would not seem to support a longbows > source hypothesis. For example, on the south side of the > church there is a row of five old yew trees lining the > east side of the churchyard space. Their number, size > and contiguity to each other suggest to me that they were > planted to screen off the Black Bull Inn that was erected > in 1687 according to Pevsner. I wish I knew how to age yew > trees. My guess is that these five could be three hundred > years old. > One source (which I did not quote because I wasn't convinced of its reliability) said that yews stop growing at a certain point and go into sort of "maintenance mode." This may be utter nonsense, but, if true, it would make yews extremely difficult to date. The screen of yews that you mentioned sounds more like recent "landscaping" than ritual planting. Francine %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%