It has lived through the reign of seven British monarchs and the terms of more than 40 prime ministers, but now someone is trying to kill it.

This great yew of Milton Lilbourne, near Marlborough, is thought to have been poisoned and it may not be the only tree in the village in the sights of a killer.

Mystery surrounds why anyone should want to put to death the magnificent, 200-year-old tree, which towers 40ft high.

But official tests have revealed that a deliberate attempt was made to exterminate it, with the tree-killer using an estimated ‘bathful’ of poison.

The doomed yew fronts on to the home of Peter Crofton-Atkins, who noticed this summer that it was starting to appear ill.

“It looked sick and half of the branches had turned brown,” said Mr Crofton-Atkins.

Puzzled Mr Crofton-Atkins paid for chemical laboratory tests to be done and was furious to discover the tree had been laced with toxic chemicals, believed to be glyphosate.

“They took soil samples and discovered that the chemicals in my garden were 15 parts per million but below the tree it was 10,000 parts per million.

“The tree man said this is what’s so extraordinary – they must have used a bathful of the stuff.”

Mr Crofton-Atkins estimates that the yew is around 200 years old.

Now he has written to Milton Lilbourne Parish Council demanding that it investigates how to try save the poisoned tree.

“I’m angry,” said Mr Crofton-Atkins. “You have to ask yourself who would do such a terrible act of vandalism?

“There’s another tree, possibly another two, which are suspected of having been poisoned, but people are not comfortable talking about it,” said one villager who asked not to be named.

Paul Oatway, chairman of the parish council, said: “Peter has written to me about this and I asked him for some more details. Unfortunately he has not yet given me all the details I need. But this matter will go on the agenda of the next parish council meeting. I’m not entirely sure what he wants the parish council to do. It may be that he should speak to the Environment Agency.”

Gardeners report that there may be hope yet to the fading yew as a poisoned tree can sometimes be resuscitated if it is watered during dry spells to wash toxins to deeper levels and contaminated soil is replaced.

 

* An earlier version of this article said the tree was in the churchyard. It is not. We apologise for this error.