Devil
The Devil and the hundredth yew
Ninety-nine and no more.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Churchyard of clipped yew trees round a church
- Legend from
- Painswick folk belief
- Tone
- Eerie
Plant a hundredth yew and the Devil will pull it up.
St Mary's churchyard in Painswick is famous for its clipped yews. The legend says only 99 will ever grow there, because the Devil destroys the hundredth. National Trails says that in 2000 the parish planted a hundredth yew for the millennium, and that it was doing well, against the legend.