National Trust - Ankerwycke Yew — Attraction in Wraysbury

Yes, the coolest thing I saw in England was a tree. I know many of you are rolling your eyes, just hear me out.

It's 480 BC. At Thermopylae, Leonidas and 300 Spartans attempt to delay an advancing Persian army. In Nepal, a prince is born, Siddhartha Gautama, who would become the founder of Buddhism. The first five books of the Bible, the Torah, have not yet been compiled. In China, Confucius is the the last year of his life. In a meadow along the River Thames in the south of Britain, a visiting thrush deposits a seed in the tall grass.

426 years later, the yew that grew from this seed would have been near the peak of its majesty. This is 54 BC, and this yew, which would not be named Ankerwycke for another 1000 years, may have witnessed Gaius Julius Caesar leading his second invasion of Britain as his Roman army marched up the Thames' river valley.

Across the River Thames from the great Ankerwycke Yew was a field that became known, during the reign of Saxon Kings, as Runnymede--derived from the Anglo-Saxon runieg (regular meeting) and mede (mead or meadow), describing a place in the meadows used to hold regular meetings. In 870 CE, the now 1350 year-old Ankerwycke Yew would have witnessed Alfred the Great meeting with his council of nobles as they planned to defend Wessex from the Danish Viking invasion.

The Yew would have long ago began rotting away from the inside out, perhaps splitting in a storm, buckling under its own weight. But yews demonstrate a remarkable immunity to disease, and while its ancient wood may rot away over hundreds of years, healthy new growth periodically shoots up. The result is a massive trunk, at this time perhaps 20 feet around, with a hollow center. The massive hollow tree was the kind of shelter that might find home to a pagan druid.

It was common for Christian missionaries to build on grounds that were already deemed holy by local pagan tradition, and in 1160 CE, during the reign of Henry II, an abbey was built and dedicated to Mary Magdalene under the protection of this great yew (1640 years-old). The ruins of the abbey can still be seen here today.

55 years after the founding of the Abbey, in 1215 CE, over 800 years ago, King John and his barons met at Runnymede, and the already ancient Ankerwycke Yew witnessed King John forced to sign the Magna Carta. The Yew is the last surviving witness to this founding of English parliamentary democracy. Three of the 37 laws in the Magna Carta are still considered to be in effect in the United Kingdom, including the right to due process:

"XXIX. NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right."

And to top it off, legend has it that King Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn under the great canopy of the Anckerwyke Yew, almost 500 years ago.

Like the Ship of Theseus or Locke's socks, it is unlikely that any part of the tree is as old as the tree itself, but the Anckerwyke Yew now stands 30 feet in girth, possibly 2500 years old, and perhaps witness to more profound historical events than any other...

Wow! It really seems like the National Trust don't want you to find this! Or maybe the local residents want to discourage people! We parked halfway down Magna Carta Lane. There's a National Trust sign and information board so we assumed that's where you can park although there was no info. There's a sign close by to the priory and yew but they point in the wrong direction! We ignored this as we could see on Google maps that it was pointing the wrong way so we followed the path through the field that runs parallel to the lane. At the end there was a wooden sign and arrow which we assumed was the footpath sign and turned left to see another gate with the same sign. At this point if we'd ignored the sign on the gate and turned right and walked down the straight avenue of trees we would have found the yew in a few minutes. Instead we followed the footpath sign which was really hard to find at times and took us through fields of cows, up down and all around to the point of frustration. How hard would it be for the NT to just put up a few signs to the priory...

Huge ancient yew tree surrounded by lots of old yews bordered by the river Thames. Great place for a quiet picnic, with benches, grassy sward, and lovely afternoon/evening sunlight. Perfect photography spot, views and interesting avenues, arches of tree branches, sunlight through trees. Seems to have a pagan following with ribbons and tokens tied to the central yew. Lovely calm place for meditation or just chilling out away from everything. Hard to find though! Sat nav will take you to the visitor centre on the other side of the river, where there is no access to the yew trees as there's no bridge! Look for Magna Carta lane, park at the bottom and take the circular walk to it. Sadly it isn't sign posted, but there are a few tiny National Trust way markers on the path. Worth...