Northamptonshire,
United Kingdom 
I have (had) a large bay bush, 7 foot tall, 5 foot wide by the front door. Old villagers say well over 50 years old.
After the winter all the leaves went brown.
It has not recovered, and we are nearly in June now, with no sign of a green leaf.
I am still reluctant to cut it down; (too big for me to dig out); but do you think it is dead?---We had two freek nights last winter, temperature 1.-16 2.-17
Did that kill it ? Many thanks Nick.
30 May, 2012
Answers
It's possible that this winter finished it off - we had a very mild winter, more like an extended autumn really, some trees even tried to flower by December/January. But then February arrived, and it was, compared to the rest of winter, sudden and bitter cold. The shock of that damaged many plants, so that might be the explanation.
30 May, 2012
Bamboo is quite right. I had two evergreen shrubs that died this winter, had been fine for years up until then.
Seems we have to keep anything that will cover them in case of sudden need.
31 May, 2012
perhaps its died of old age . only a guess .
30 May, 2012