The churchyard at Bentley in Hampshire has a remarkable yew canopy making visitors stoop.
Bentley does not find a place in Tony Hall’s The Immortal Yew book but the one in Ichen Abbas churchyard does.
Tony makes two interesting observations. One is that John Hughes, the last person to be hanged for stealing horse, is buried nearby. This was 1825 and the vicar promised to place his body under the ancient tree.
The other is that the lovely ’12th-century’ Hampshire church is really Victorian. The original may have been built in 1092. But today’s church is fully carpeted.
Hilaire Belloc, who walked the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester in 1899, thought that yew trees were significant markers.
