Ancient Yew, St Helen’s Church, Darley Dale, Derbyshire

Photo credit: Mary Dickerson

Photo credit: Mary Dickerson

Location: St Helen's Church, Darley Dale, Derbyshire

Region: Midlands

Grid Ref:

Owner / Manager: Diocese of Derby

Access: Public access

The Yew Tree, which is situated just outside the south porch, is claimed to be 2000 years old and is one of the thickest in England with a girth of around 33 feet, 4 feet from the ground. Around the base of the tree are stone tablets commemorating some outstanding actions during the Second World War.

The yew at Darley Dale is written up in The Sacred Yew, via the work of Allen Meredith, by Anand Chetan and Diana Brixton, published by Penguin in 1994, but no ISBN, see pp.197 (where a Green Man – l have many repros – is also mentioned at St. Catherine’s) and also 257. This Yew has quite a few mentions in the Reprint Series of Forgotten Books,  The Yew – Trees of Great Britain and Ireland by John Lowe, 1897, reprinted 2012, pp 43, 48, 62, 82, 95, 205.