Parwich

September 2005 – Tim Hills: The Church warden’s accounts of 1713 tell us that somebody was paid 3 shillings 6 pence ‘for ye yew tree and fetching it’ and 6 pence ‘for setting it’. It later relates that ‘Tom and Tout were paid 1 shilling and 4 pence for 2 days work about ye yew tree’. In 1857 White’s Directory of Derbyshire refers to some ‘venerable yew trees’ in the churchyard. If we assume the 1713 yew was 10 years old at the time of planting, it would make its age over 300 years now. Although several younger yews grow in this churchyard, the tree growing SW of the church is the only that might have been planted in 1713. It is male and had a girth of 11′ 7” at 2′ and 11′ 10” at 4′. Two spaces at the base of the tree showed evidence of internal growth.