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Torver

Nearest town: Coniston

Site type: churchyard

Access: Public

Church name: St Luke

Diocese: Carlisle

County: Cumbria

Country: England

Grid ref: SD28479427

Lost yew site: No

Date visited: 28-May-97

Recorded by: Graham Wilkinson

Protection & responsibility: Parochial Church Council

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

Notes: The present church was built in 1884, but an 1804 slab close to one of the yews indicates previous use of the site. 'As Conishead Priory had an estate in Torver it is probable that a chapel existed there long before the Reformation, but nothing is known of its history. In 1538 Archbishop Cranmer granted a licence for the consecration of the chapel in which the inhabitants were then accustomed to hear mass and partake of the sacraments'. According to Mee in The King's England the church 'has an old chest hollowed from the trunk of a tree in which was kept a scrap of paper signed by Cranmer in 1538, a faculty for the consecration of the church and the burial of the dead. It is now in Preston'. All of the yews are raised above the present ground level by 2'/3' in individual, circular, walled beds.