The Challenging Life Of The Britain's Oldest Living Tree

Britain's oldest living tree might be dying over a contracted arboreal infection, claims the warden of the church where the tree resides. The Ashbrittle Yew tree —aged between 3,500 and 4,000 years — stands tall Church of St John the Baptist, in Ashbrittle, Somerset.

The locals near the church suggest that the tree is dying because of an unspecified arboreal infection. The worrying claim came after they started to notice the wilting vast canopy and fall of the evergreen leaves.

“The tree is supposed to be the oldest living thing in England and was already fairly mature when Stonehenge was being built. But it’s looking extremely sick at the moment and I’m worried whether the rural church or the yew will die first,” said Charles Doble, the warden at the church.

The Ashbrittle Yew tree is believed to be growing on a Bronze Age tomb, near the burial spot of one of the pre-Roman chieftain. According to a founding member of the Ancient Yew Group, Tim Hills, the ancient tree is one of the top 20 or 30 UK trees and is one of the Tree Register’s “champion trees.”

“Yews go through cycles when they replace their leaves every eight or nine years. It may look as though this tree is suffering. But this yew will probably outlive the church,” said Hills.

However, tree experts believe that the tree might just be going through a rough patch, and might not have actually contracted a disease. In addition, they believe that it is unlikely that the tree would die of old age any time soon.

“They go through spells where they might look as though they are not thriving, but a few years later they might look fine. They are almost immortal,” said tree expert Dr Owen Johnson, reported The Independent.

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