Meet My Yorkshire Three!

Meet Levisham, Lockton and Sleights and find out what happened to Goathland and Helmsley.

My English Yews have always been fondly referred to as my "Yorkshire Five" when I talk about them. Sadly, the five has become three, but I've learnt a lot and I'd like to share my experience with you.

These trees were received bare-rooted, back in March 2025. Their roots were dry, rust-coloured and looked like tubers, rather than roots. They had been wrapped in plastic and deprived of oxygen. To make matters worse, one of the trees had clearly been severely struggling before it was bare-rooted and wrapped in cling film and bubble wrap.

One of the trees that is growing also arrived with signs of stress (small needles, close together. In fact, they were so close together that some of the bark came away when I removed those needles), but it has recovered now.

I have been naming my trees thanks to these yews. The particularly badly tree had become the "sickly tree" in my mind and I was becoming worried I'd start feeling negatively about it. The way it looked made me think of the old, ruined keep of Helmsley Castle, which stands like a sentinel over the little town, so I named the "sickly one" Helmsley, then called the others Goathland, Lockton, Levisham and Sleights.

Goathland, had the poor thing lived, was earmarked to become a lovely Windswept tree. It was already leaning and the style would have fitted beautifully.

Helmsley would have been a Formal Upright. No low branches, only stubs, and a tall, straight trunk. The branches were all thin, the needles too short and dark and the bark was already shrivelled and looked like dark chocolate. I held onto hope and placed the trees in the worst conditions (Goathland and Helmsley) in pond baskets filled with sphagnum moss. Had I also cut them back to just above the roots, perhaps they might have put out feeder roots (none of the trees had any healthy ones) and grew.

The biggest success story was Sleights. With a low branch that looked to be reasonably healthy, this tree was destined to be a beautiful Cascade or Semi-cascade. I waited until the tree had started to put out new growth, then wrapped the low branch in raffia and wired it down. I expected the tree to protest and start dying back on the now stressed branch, but instead it seemed to do better with the wire pulling it down. Sleights takes his name from the waterfall that can be seen from the road as you approach the village from the moor.

Levisham and Lockton are the twins. Similar growth this year, both intended to be Informal Upright trees (upright, with some movement in the trunk; not tall and straight). The villages they take their name from are a pair of villages that are just a pleasant walk away from each other.

Finally, I apologise for the sound quality. The plane that went over was not particularly loud (unlike the fighter jets, which are so loud when they're on their manoeuvres that I can't hear myself, while the microphone doesn't pick them up much at all) and the sparrows made a racket as well. Part of working outside, unfortunately.