A decade after 7,000 young yews propagated from 43 of the UK’s oldest living trees were planted to celebrate the new millennium in parishes throughout the UK, The Conservation Foundation is asking their guardians to give their special tree a ten year health check and report back on how it’s growing.

The Foundation distributed the Millennium Yews to churches, parishes, schools, colleges, hospitals, community centres, ancient woodlands and public parks, many at specially organised services in English and Welsh cathedrals in 1999. Grown from trees of between one and two thousand years old, the English Yew (Taxus baccata) was chosen as a living symbol of celebration which reflected permanence and endurance, as well as the abundance and vitality of life.

Many Millennium Yews found a place in churchyards, often alongside some very ancient yews but the new arrivals were also planted the length and breadth of the country from Canisbay, the UK’s most northern parish, to the Isles of Scilly, where the yew was delivered by HRH The Prince of Wales. A Millennium Yew marked the establishment of Berinsfield in Oxfordshire, the first new village for over 200 years and the Woodland Trust’s new woodland in East Sussex. One was planted on the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s estate at Chatsworth to celebrate Mothers’ Day, at Glamis Castle in memory of the Queen Mother, in Windsor Great Park and at Charles Dickens’ home at Gad’s Hill.

Above, Conservation Foundation Director David Shreeve visits a thriving Millennium Yew.

“While the world churns around it, the yew stands a silent witness to centuries of history in the way no other tree does. Our Millennium Yews have also seen a decade with many momentous events and we would like to see how they are faring after their first ten years. As well as details of their size and spread, we hope to receive news, pictures and any stories of links established with other parishes and communities through the Millennium Yew project.”

“If you were at one of the Cathedral services where the Millennium Yews were handed out, you might remember that they came with the message to nurture the environment as you would nurture the young tree. In the International Year of Biodiversity, this message has even greater resonance now as it did then.”

If you are a Millennium Yews guardian or know of someone who is, The Conservation Foundation would like to hear from you. Please send us news and pictures, with the location of the tree, including the postcode and follow the yew story on this website.