This page is about some curious church horticulture.
In the churchyard at Painswick in Gloucestershire there are at least 99 yew trees. It is said that attempts to grow the one hundredth tree have always failed.
Painswick churchyard
A single yew tree in the churchyard at Fortingal in Tayside is
reputed to be some 2,000 years old – 0ne of the oldest living things in
Europe. In 1769 it had a girth of over 56ft but has now disintigrated into several sections
Fortingal yew
The site of this church may have been an early monastery and the present church contains many interesting relics including a hand bell dating from the 600's. This place is reputed to be the birthplace of Pontius Pilate.
An avenue of 700 years old yew trees lead to the church at Nevern in Pembrokeshire, Wales . One of them is the famous ‘bleeding’ yew tree’ about which various legends exist. A blood red sap leaks from the trunk of the tree. One story has it that it bleeds for the wrongful hanging of a young man many years ago. Another says that it will bleed until the world is at peace.
Nevern Church
Copyright 'grev16' to whom I am grateful for allowing me to copy this photograph.
Nevern Yew
A fig tree grows
out of the wall at the old church at Manaccan in Cornwall . The wall has a two outer facings of
stone with a space between filled with rubble, which has a enabled the tree to
grow. The origin of this 200 year old
tree is not known.
Another fig tree
in the churchyard in the centre of Watford in Hertfordshire, has split a gravestone in all directions. The story goes that the incumbent, an
atheist, asked for the fig tree to be placed in his coffin when he was buried
there, saying that if there was a God, the fig tree would grow.
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