yew

1) A tree, scarce in Yorkshire, but with a variety of uses.

The yew is commemorated in a number of Yorkshire place-names, for example Ewden and The Yews, both in Bradfield parish. Documentary references to the tree itself are quite scarce but it had a variety of uses: 1577 I ... bequithe to Mr Mathew Nevell ij large bowes of ewe, Birstall

1599 Item one payre of ewe naves with certayne wayne timbre ploughe tymber sawn bordes pannell bordes & lattes, Rawmarsh

1636 one little yew table, vs, Allerton near Bradford. The wood was certainly grown for ornament: 1674 4 view trees [sic] set about my house Sept. 1, Northowram.

spellings ewe
dates 1577 1599 1636 1674

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