I didn't know this, what is the evidence?
Hi Alan, yep that was complete cobblers. What I wrote and what I meant to write were two completely different things.
So let me start again, there is evidence of Italian Yew being used of course, but not exclusively, and not necessarily in greater amounts than any other Yew.
?Already by the mid-fifteenth century, most staves for English longbows were imported, mainly from southern Germany and Austria?
?All across Europe, the trade routes of the Yew staves employed a mixture of carts for land transport, barges for inland navigation and ships leaving the harbours of the Baltic and North Sea to head for London or other English ports?
In short, Yew was imported from all over Europe, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Italy, western Russia, Ireland and others.
?Some early English sources mention tight grained Spanish Yew wood as far superior to the knotty British bow timber?
?Richard III?s 1483 decree (to import ten Yew staves with each casket of wine) is an important hint that Spain Italy and southern France must have been exporting significant amounts of Yew, at least for a few years?
Taken from Fred Hageneder?s book, Yew a history.
Well worth a read.
Sorry to Danceswithbunnys for hijacking the thread. I?ll clear off quietly now?..
Cheers
jb