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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Natural Histories

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Nature that has had a profound impact on human culture and society across history.

Nature that has got under our skin and profoundly impacted human culture and society across our history.

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Natural Histories: Yew

BBC Radio 4 - Natural Histories, Yew

Brett Westwood explores our relationship with the ‘churchyard tree’, the yew. From 2016

Brett Westwood joins Richard Mabey inside an old churchyard yew tree in Hertfordshire, to unravel the fascinating history of our relationship with these ancient trees. From 2016

Brett Westwood steps inside the trunk of an ancient yew tree in a churchyard in Bennington in Hertfordshire, with the writer and naturalist Richard Mabey. From their extraordinary vantage point, the two men begin to unravel the history of our relationship with this most ancient and fascinating of trees. Over the centuries, yews have inspired poets, writers, painters and topiarists - who have shaped them into everything from peacocks to police helmets. With the help of writer and botanist Paul Evans, we learn that the yew is a tree unlike any other: a long-lived, regenerating, poisonous, evergreen, revered, medicinal rule-breaker.  

Originally broadcast in a longer form 22/11/2016
Original Producer: Sarah Blunt
Archive Producer Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol

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