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Chelsham

Nearest town: Croydon

Site type: churchyard

Access: Public

Church name: St Leonard

Diocese: Southwark

County: Surrey

Country: England

Grid ref: TQ389591

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 19/12/1999

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: PCC

Yews recorded at this site: Notable

Notes: Here are some significant yews with a known planting date. In Brayley's Topographical History of Surrey 1850 we are told that on the south side of the chruchyard are some folurishing yew-trees, planted by Weilliam Phillips, a schoolmaster of Chelsham in the year 1746. A paper presented to Croydon Nat. Hist.& Scientific Soc. by E.Straker in 1880 recorded 3 yews in this churchyard: (1) 6' at 5' SSW with an estimated age of 200 yrs (2) 7' 3'' at 5', SE with an estimated age of 245yrs (3) 4' 6'' at 5' - ESE with an estimated age of 160 years. A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1912 noted that 'the churchyard contains on its eastern side a fine yew of great age and other trees of some size to the west and north of the church.'