06 March 2007

Yew trees

Watched the BBC programme 'The Trees that made Britain' last night, on the subject of yew trees. It follows two tree experts from Kew Gardens on a tour of interesting trees around the UK.

The answer to the question 'Why do we find yew trees close to churches?' turned out to be 'because pagans thought of yew trees as their churches, so the early Christians built their churches next door to them, to tempt the pagans indoors'. What a fantastic piece of marketing. In a wet country like this, people were bound to go for the religion with the indoor venue.

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