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Old yews is good news!
12-03-2007
Yews for the Millennium was one of the most successful British Millennium projects - and one that should still be visible at the turn of the next millennium. In 1999 the UK Conservation Foundation took cuttings from Yew trees that were alive at the time of Christ and launched a scheme to plant Yew trees for the new Millennium.
The Wilky Group kindly donated two of these special Millennium Yew trees on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce to the Borough of Guildford, and these saplings have been lovingly nurtured in Stoke Park nurseries in Guildford by Guildford Borough Council's Parks Department ever since.
The trees have been recently officially planted in their permanent home in public gardens in the centre of Guildford, and the photograph shows Angela Gunning, the Mayor of Guildford (left) with Council, Chamber and Sandra Young of the Wilky Group.
In 1999 the UK Conservation Foundation took cuttings from Yew trees that were alive at the time of Christ and planted them for the new Millennium. Several hundred of these ancient trees still live across Britain, almost all in churchyards. The yew in Fortingall churchyard near Aberfeldy in Scotland might even be as old as 8,000 years, making it the oldest living thing in Britain.
It was expected that a few hundred churches would take up the gift of a yew sapling but in the end more than 8,000 saplings were distributed, and crowds gathered in cathedrals and local churches for the blessing of these tiny plants.
In the year 3000 one in 20 of these yews could still be alive. And in the next hundred years these trees will provide shelter in churchyards, and act as memorials to the local enthusiasm for nature and the sacred.
Since the reason after all for there being a millennium celebration was the birth of Christ, the Yews project chose the ancient sacred trees that were alive during the life of Jesus to be appropriate symbols for the celebration.
The Conservation Foundation Yew Tree Campaign was launched by David Bellamy in 1987 to ensure the protection of Britain's oldest trees - and invite the public to record and look after their local yews.
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