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Westhope - church

Nearest town: Church Stretton

Site type: churchyard

Access: Public

Church name:

Diocese:

County: Shropshire

Country:

Grid ref: SO4696986241

Lost yew site: Yes

Date visited: 2015

Recorded by: Paul Wood

Protection & responsibility: No data

Yews recorded at this site: Lost

Notes: Westhope Church is a rebuild in brick from about 1800 and sits on a site recorded as a chapelry to the church at Diddlebury. This is mentioned in documents going back four hundred years at least, so this was an ecclesiastical site in the 1600s - though I reckon it is much earlier. It has one yew which looked to be around the 7 feet in size, but I am reliably informed by two old locals that they had seen pictures years ago of a much different looking churchyard before they were born - of a churchyard with more yews (size unknown). The site of Westhope Hall has very much altered the landscape but I think that if we were alive in the late 1500s we would have seen a few more old yews aside a hollow way down to the church. The land around the church in 2026 is now a designated green burial ground.