Saint- Sulpice-de- Grimbouville

Nearest town: Honfleur

Site type: churchyard

Access: Public

Church name: St Sulplice

Diocese: No Data

County: Eure - Normandie

Country: France

Grid ref: not known

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 19-Jul-18

Recorded by: Tim Hills

Protection & responsibility: No data

Yews recorded at this site: Ancient 5m-7m

Notes: The yew grows SW of the church. A French writer, Rever, around 1800 described 'a yew, extremely old, completely rotten in all the wooden parts of the trunk, only surviving by its bark and roots; but still standing firm and resisting the violent and ruining attacks of time. We did not take the measure, because we were told we would find bigger and more astonishing yews in the countryside and so we continued our road to Conteville'. In Arcisse de Caumont's 1857 Statistique monumental du Calvados, vol 3, pages 436/437 we are told that 'a few years ago, you could find three beautiful yews on the churchyard of Saint-Sulpice; the village sacrificed two of them to obtain money, one is left. This is the place to recommend to the ‘antiquaires’ the conservation of these trees that very often are old aged and although somebody has, sadly enough sold them to a cabinetmaker. Nothing is more majestic as a yew with its dark leaves, round top and regular shape. They are still very common in most of the churchyards of the arrondissement of Bayeux. They are very rare on the plain of Caen. It is not useless to say that their placement in the churchyard is determined, and that, with very few exceptions, that is on the right hand side of the western door and a little bit to the south and in front of this facades they are planted. Is there a liturgical reason, or was it really because it once that judicial deliberations were done under the dense foliage of this old trees, and was that better to be done in the Midi, as in the Nord, in our cold and rainy regions? I have no idea, but it is likely that this habit has a purpose. Change could not have determined such a great uniformity in choosing the place of the yews in the churchyard. Information supplied by Wim Peeters.