#kingley vale

[lacrimis]

Kingley Vale die.

The Ancient Yew Forest of Kingley Vale is tucked between Stoke Down and Bow Hill, adjacent the village of West Stoke just 3 miles north west of Chichester, in West Sussex in southern England.

[paganmusic]

I go to the Church of Trees

That magnificent nature poem was written by my Bardic Buddy Arthur Hinds and to me sums up in just a few verses the reverence we Druids hold for these beings. If ever I feel upset, or disconnected from my Path, if ever I need to remember what it is all about, all for, it is to the woods my feet take me. Just as a Christian will make a pilgrimage to an ancient church, there to sit in the pews and…

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[aliceeve]

Visiting the ancient yew forest.

[dreamzs338]

The Ancient Yew Forest of Kingley Vale

The Ancient Yew Forest of Kingley Vale

The Ancient Yew Forest of Kingley Vale  is tucked between Stoke Down and Bow Hill, adjacent the village of West Stoke just 3 miles north west of Chichester, in West Sussex in southern England, is Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve. It was established in 1952, and it was one of the first National Nature Reserves to be opened in Britain. The nature reserve occupied an area of 160 hectares,…

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[atardisfullofbras]

This is Kingley Vale, an ancient yew forest and a perfect place for a Boxing Day walk. Apart from the fact we mistimed it and had to find our way in the dark for the last forty minutes and the fact that Yew trees are fucking creepy.

Firstly, the most obvious thing is the gnarled, coily, twisty shape they have how they naturally grow faces. And claws. They invite you to climb and interact with them but you always feel it is a Bad Idea.

They are also so old. They have seen and heard things we haven’t. They have probably learned things we haven’t. They have watched everything change around them and never spoken about it.

They are used in graveyards so that’s spooky. This is because almost all of the tree is poisonous and deadly. They want to make sure the dead stay dead so if they wake up all hungry and start licking the nearest thing, they are back to square one. Even burning the wood is bad luck.

They are used in churchyards as a sanctuary. Because you are safe from cows when you are under a yew tree.

They are indestructible. I have seen yews that have had bricks inserted on the inside, ones that have been struck by lightning, cut down , strangled by plants and still they continue to grow. They are possibly zombie trees.

They seem oddly linked to human life, while outliving it. If I had one in my garden, I know my health would reflect that of the tree. A broken branch, a broken limb. Choking on ivy, pleurisy. That sort of thing.

I have always felt a slight sense of repulsion at the idea of living flesh growing plant matter on them (which is why I can never share Richards love of Swamp Thing). Living things with moss, weeds, barnacles don’t sit well with me. Yew Trees are the other way round. They are plants that seem to have flesh growing out of them. Feel their branches and it’s like someone trying to get you to feel a muscle they’ve been working on but has still yet to bulge. And it’s cold. Squeeze them and they want to wince. Parts of the bark are stripped away to reveal muscles and ligaments underneath.

[godblessyoublackemperor]

Kingley Vale

[stevespurgin]

Kingley Vale Nature Trail