Lorton Vale

Nearest town: Cockermouth

Site type: field

Access: Public

Church name: No Data

Diocese: No Data

County: Cumbria

Country: England

Grid ref: NY16202540

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 27-Jun-02

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: Landowner

Yews recorded at this site: Ancient 4m-5m

Notes: Probably the only yew to date to have a whole book written about it. Entitled 'Wordsworth and the famous Lorton Yew Tree' it was published in 2004 by the Lorton and Derwent Fells Local History Society. The tree is on private land close to a stream behind a former brewery. In 2008 the land was owned by local farmer, John Tyson. In 2011 the space beneath the tree was being used to store logs - perhaps not a good idea at a time when a hot April has led to fires in the area. In Magna Britannia: Volume 4, Cumberland, originally published by T Cadell and W Davies, London, 1816, is the following: 'In the chapel-yard at Lorton is a Yew-tree, the trunk of which is 27 feet in circumference'.