Have you ever wondered why Church yards often have you trees in them well there are several different fascinating reasons and theories and here are just a few youths have long been associated with something otherworldly according to the ancient Romans used were the Trees of hell and grew near the entrance of
The Underworld for The Druids the priests of the Celtic tribes they saw the U as sacred believing it would banish evil spirits and when some of the Pagan population in the British Isles was converted to Christianity these same sites where you’s were continued to be used for Christian worship so we still
Find them in church house today the Christians use can represent the blood and Body of Christ as the Heartwood of the tree when freshly cut is red and the sap is white they are also incredibly Hardy able to survive for centuries on infertile soil so this might have suggested rebirth and
Resurrection but there are practical reasons too in 1307 Edward the first ordered that you trees be planted in Church hours to protect the buildings from high winds and storms what’s more you trees are highly poisonous to humans and animals the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth concocted a poisonous Brew with
Slips of you silvered in the moon’s eclipse and so planting these used in the church hours was a way to stop people from grazing their Livestock on Church land as so often happens with graveyards so many myths have emerged around this with some believing that use absorb the poisons from the vapors from
The decaying bodies underground others believe that if you fell asleep under a u on a warm day it would bring hallucinations luckily there is a more scientific method applied these days and the taxane alkaloids in the trees have been used to produce anti-cancer drugs so quite a tree foreign
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Thank you for the information. This is a very special tree indeed. A tree that as benefited humans for a great number of years.
The short is a little blurry but you still look beautiful.❤
Yew beauty ❤
I'm a bit surprised you didn't mentioned how yew in Europe was (and still are) almost totally extinct, because in a period it was a special tax required to enter any British port, to bring a certain amounts of stocks of yew wood, (I think it was some prince of Flanders that complained bitterly, because when the yew was cut down, they left vast areas vulnerable to wind), because this wood was the best bow-material available, because of the mix of the dark heart-wood and the white outer wood. Also – because of how highly poisonous it was – bow makers was given a reputation of dying at a relatively young age, breathing in the dust all day.
Alice Loxton = Early Bird for facts
Loving all her videos, so informative, but I can't help it.
"Wait, that is yew?"
"No, that's not me, I am me, and you are you, and that is yew!"
"What are you talking about?!"
"How should I know, yews don't talk!"
"How dare you, I can talk, yews don't talk."
"That's what I just said!!!"
"YOU ARE CRAZY!!!!"
"No! YOU are crazy, trees are NOT crazy!!!"
I love your passion for history! Very informative!
LOVE your videos. Your restrained enthusiasm and the way that you focus on a topic makes them very pleasant to watch. Keep them coming! 🙂
Got one in the back garden. 👍
So the Rosemary & Thyme episode "The Tree of Death" was right especially regarding the yews and anti-cancer treatments. 🤓
Yew sussed that out Alice 🤣
I love the English history. Greetings from Argentina.
That was very interesting, and I love your enthusiasm. I must admit however to being here for entirely the wrong reason. 😁
A Yew in Hastings England (UK) beloved to have pre dated the Battle of Hastings (1066). Unfortunately it is no longer standing.
1:45 Debussy is rolling under a yew right now !
Very Interesting Alice!!
Great insight thanks
Hippocratic texts say that a ‘tea’ brewed from yew will cure headaches. Supposed scientists poopooed this for millennia, until in the nineteenth century Dr Friedrich Bayer synthesised the active ingredient of aspirin from it.
https://youtu.be/ZP6HAJx0zbg
There is a yew in Eastling ( Kent ) that is marked up as being 2000 years old ! Any advance on 2k ???
The bow of English yew. Let's sing together for the. Grey goose feather and the Land where the Grey goose flew. ACD. The White Company.
For Pete’s sake Alice , please don’t drown out your videos with unnecessary background music .
always loved Yew trees in the various 'God's acres' scattered around.
Google says thier native but we're not sure did you ever know them to self propegate we think it was norman fashion to plant them in graveyards and it was because of the longbow fashion at the time have you really ever seen them anywhere else if you see them dnt you presume it is or was at sometime a graveyard?
The idea that yew trees in churchyards were planted there by pagans doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
The vast majority were planted at the time of the construction of the church buildings.
This follows an early Irish church adoption of the Mediterranean practice of placing evergreens around burial sites.
There are older yews but certainly in England they often signified the location of a meeting place – eg for Anglo-Saxon hundredal courts.
Very interesting indeed, Alice and I am surprised that you didn't mention the story about the longbows of the English archers. I must say that it's always a bonus when you get your legs out!