Vikings and Kingley Vale Great Yew Forest, Monument to an ancient battle?

Ancient Yews at Kingley Vale

I have just come across a reference in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to a battle between the Vikings and the men of Chichester in 895 AD.  The passage reads as follows:

When the host that had besieged Exeter sailed on its way back home, it harried inland in Sussex near Chichester, but the garrison put them to flight and slew many hundreds of them, capturing some of their ships.

Now, there is a legend that the yew trees of Kingley Vale were planted in commemoration of a battle fought by the men of Chichester and they were planted to provide a future supply of yew staves for long bows.  It is a nice story and the passage quoted above might be the basis of it.  You can believe it if you like.

Kingley Vale is unusual in that although Yew Taxus baccata is common on the South Downs, it is not usually a dominant component of woodland, and certainly not on such a scale as this.  It is the combination of size and the dominance of Yew over much of the area that makes Kingley Vale special.  

A S Watt surveyed Kingley Vale in 1926 and came to the conclusion that one of the factors that led to the establishment of the Yew forest was the exposed nature of some parts of the site which provided conditions under which Juniper Juniperis communis could become established and that this then acted as a nursery for the Yew which ultimately took over.  Watt also studied beechwoods on the South Downs and the experience may have contributed to the formulation of his influential ideas on ecological succession.