Mystery
The Crowhurst Yew
Mind the door. Someone may be holding a meeting.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Huge hollow yew with a door in the trunk
- Legend from
- Aubrey; VCH 1912; parish tradition
- Tone
- Curious
A yew so old and so hollow that the village put a door in it, and a table, and held meetings inside.
In the churchyard of St George's at Crowhurst stands one of the oldest yews in England, hollow inside. In the early 1800s a door was fitted into the trunk, with a table and a bench inside that could seat about a dozen people. The parish council says that while this was being done a cannon ball was found inside the trunk, perhaps from the Civil War. At various times the tree has been a meeting place for the parish council and the home of a homeless family. By 1890 the table had gone. Some people see an old man's face in the bark.