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Borrowdale Yews, Borrowdale
Borrowdale Yews
locality:-   Seathwaite
locality:-   Borrowdale
civil parish:-   Borrowdale (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   tree
locality type:-   yew
coordinates:-   NY23641254 (approx) 
1Km square:-   NY2312
10Km square:-   NY21

photograph
BLY06.jpg (taken 24.4.2006)  
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 70 13) 
placename:-  Borrowdale Yews
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
evidence:-   old print:- Nelson 1853 (edn 1880s) 
placename:-  Borrowdale Yews
item:-  yew tree
source data:-   Print, uncoloured, The Borrowdale Yews, Borrowdale, Cumberland, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, London, 1853 edn 1880s?
image  click to enlarge
NS0305.jpg
On p.19 of Views of the English Lakes, and Tourists Guide to the English Lakes. 
printed at bottom:-  "THE BORROWDALE YEWS."
item:-  JandMN : 474.6
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
item:-  fraternal four
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
image MNU1P156, button  goto source
Page 156:-  "... amidst the copsewood, are the dark tops of the Borrowdale yews to be seen,- the "fraternal four," which, as Wordsworth tells us, form "one solemn and capacious grove." The size attained by the yew in this district is astonishing. One which for many years lay prostrate at the other end of Borrowdale, measured nine yards in circumference, and contained 1,460 feet of wood. The famous Lorton yew (p.87.) has about the same girth; and one of these four measures seven yards round, at four feet from the ground."
evidence:-   old photograph:- Bell 1880s-1940s
source data:-   Photograph, black and white, the Borrowdale Yews, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumberland, by Herbert Bell, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1890s.
image  click to enlarge
HB0392.jpg
internegative at lower left:-  "H. Bell"
stamped at reverse:-  "HERBERT BELL / Photographer / AMBLESIDE"
item:-  Armitt Library : ALPS47
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old photograph:- Bell 1880s-1940s
source data:-   Photograph, black and white, the Borrowdale Yews, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumberland, by Herbert Bell, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1890s.
image  click to enlarge
HB0393.jpg
stamped at reverse:-  "HERBERT BELL / Photographer / [ ]"
item:-  Armitt Library : ALPS48
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Heaton Cooper 1905 (edn 1908) 
placename:-  Borrowdale Yews
source data:-   Print, colour halftone, The Borrowdale Yews, evening, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumberland, from a watercolour painting by Alfred Heaton Cooper, published by Adam and Charles Black, London, 2nd edn 1908.
image  click to enlarge
HC0145.jpg
Opposite p.130 of The English Lakes, painted by Alfred Heaton Cooper, described by William T Palmer. 
printed at tissue opposite the print:-  "THE BORROWDALE YEWS / Evening"
item:-  JandMN : 468.45
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- MacBride 1922
placename:-  Borrowdale Yews
source data:-   Print, colour, The Borrowdale Yews, by Alfred Heaton Cooper, published by Adam and Charles Black, 4-6 Soho Square, London, 2nd edn 1928.
image  click to enlarge
MB0119.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.128 in Wild Lakeland by MacKenzie MacBride. 
printed at bottom:-  "THE BORROWDALE YEWS"
signed at lower left:-  "A. HEATON COOPER"
item:-  JandMN : 195.21
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Goodwin 1887 (edn 1890) 
placename:-  Borrowdale Yews
source data:-   Print, etching? The Borrowdale Yews, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumberland, by Harry Goodwin, 1883, published by Swan Sonnenschein and Co, Paternoster Square, London, 1890.
image  click to enlarge
PR1621.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.252 of Through the Wordsworth Country, by William Knight. 
printed at lower centre:-  "The Borrowdale Yews"
printed at lower right:-  "HG 1883"
item:-  JandMN : 382.51
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- 
item:-  yew; tree
item:-  botany
source data:-   Print, uncoloured engraving, Yew Trees, Borrowdale, Cumberland, by ?B Foster, engraved by E Evans, 1850s-60s?
image  click to enlarge
PR0488.jpg
printed at bottom left, right, centre:-  "[B] Foster / E. EVANS SC. / YEW TREES - BORROWDALE"
item:-  Dove Cottage : 2008.107.437
Image © see bottom of page
:-  
 Group of ancient yews, Taxus baccata, at Borrowdale. William Wordsworth described them in a poem, 1803:-
"Poems of the Imagination"
"... / Worthier still of note / Are those fraternal four at Borrowdale / joined in one solemn and capacious grove: / Huge trunks and each particular trunk a growth / Of intertwisted fibres serpentine, ..."
The trees were severely damaged by a gale, 1883.

Richardson, Keith: 2011: Jack's Yak: River Greta Writer (Keswick, Cumbria):: ISBN 978 0 9559640 2 2
Bradshaw, Amy: 1991 (after): Ancient Interesting and Unusual Trees of Cumbria: Cumbria Broadleaves (Bowness on Windermere, Cumbria):: ISBN 0 9524961 0 0
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