Hedge-cutters, healers and UK's tallest yew

THOUSANDS of years ago warriors made longbows from the wood of an evergreen tree and smeared poisons from its bark and leaves on to arrowheads to make them deadlier.

These days cuttings from Britain's tallest yew hedge are used to heal, as scientists extract a cancer drug from them.

The 40ft-high hedge – believed to be nearly 300 years old – stretches in a semi-circle for 150 yards around the side of Lord Allen Apsley's mansion in the Cotswolds.

Clippings from the Bathurst Estate are sold to pharmaceutical companies who use yew extract as a key ingredient of Docetaxel, a chemotherapy drug used for breast, ovarian and lung cancer.

Yesterday workers finished the latest trim – collecting more than a tonne of clippings over two days, cutting back six inches of new growth from the 33ft-wide hedge with the help of a 70ft-high cherrypicker.

Lord Apsley, who spends more than £5,000 a year maintaining the hedge, said: "Cutting it isn't too dangerous but you do have to be careful."

Before cherrypickers were used, staff climbed up ladders to trim the bush with shears.

Philip Lusby, horticultural lecturer at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: "The practice of sending yew cuttings to drug companies is quite well established and has been going on for around ten to 15 years.

"Traditionally the wood, which is absolutely beautiful and very hard, with a wonderful grain, was used for furniture or even bagpipes. It is also regarded as a symbol of longevity and was often planted in graveyards."

Yew staves as early encyclopaedias

The Celts used yew staves and tablets to record aspects of their history, such as names of rulers, phases of the Moon and traditional law. The Druids used Yew wands as memory devices or for divination or magical practices.

Killer arrowheads

All over Europe warriors smeared yew toxins on to arrowheads, causing immediate death. The poison was made with an extract of the seeded arlis, which was then distilled.

Poisonous effects

The effects are extremely rapid because taxin is absorbed quickly into the digestive system. It is a very poisonous cardiovascular toxic substance which causes vomiting, diarrhoea, dilated pupils, unconsciousness and death due to cardiac arrest often within an hour of ingestion.

Yews and animals

Horses are the animals most at risk of the poison and may die within minutes of feeding on shoots. Pigs are also susceptible, but a fivefold amount is required to poison cattle.

Nicolas Culpepper, 17th-century herbalist on yew poison:

"It is the most active vegetable poison known in the world, for in a small dose it immediately induces death without any previous disorder, and its deleterious power seems to act upon the nervous system, without exciting the least inflammation in the part to which it more immediately enters."

Trance-inducing

Literature records the trance-inducing "shamanistic" properties of the yew. This was inspired by the Nordic myth of the god Wodan (also known as Odin), who hung for nine days on a tree in a trance to receive the wisdom of the runes.

Hampton Court maze

This is one of the most famous hedge mazes in the world. It covers a third of an acre and its paths are half a mile long. The yew hedges are approximately 7ft high and 3ft wide.

Yew sprays and finding things

Just as hazel has been used for water divining and rowan for finding metals, yew sprays were sometimes used to find things lost both in mythical stories and in everyday life.

Clan Fraser

The plant badge of the Clan Fraser is the yew – traditionally fastened on bonnets before battles. Believed to be from the ancient tradition of using yew as a talisman.

The yew and fertility

An 850-year-old female yew in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, with a girth of 17ft, is associated with a fertility ritual – women are said to become fertile by walking forward and around the tree. Men walk backwards around it.

World's tallest hedge of any type

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Scotland is home to the world's tallest hedge of any type – a beech hedge at Meikleour in Perthshire, which ranges from 80ft to 120ft in height.

FACT BOX

The oldest yew hedge is believed to have been planted in 1710 when Queen Anne reigned.

• In January that year a severe winter caused food shortages in major cities.

• James Ferguson, astronomer and instrument maker and author of Astronomical Rotula for showing the motions of the planets, places of the sun and moon, &c, was born in Banffshire.

• The British secured victory at the Battle of Almenara in July during the War of the Spanish Succession. Later that year the Spanish lost the Battle of Saragossa in the same war.

• In December 1710, umbrellas were a novelty when they appeared on the streets of London.