In a guest post, Shirani Herbert looks at what can sometimes be a difficult problem for Parochial Church Councils. 

Introduction

The human race has always had an emotional attachment to trees. Trees live so much longer than a human lifespan that we imagine, perhaps sentimentally and fancifully, that they probably knew our ancestors and witnessed significant historical events. Certain familiar trees have become particular objects of affection. The wanton felling of the Gap Sycamore tree caused national outrage. The secular laws which protect trees by requiring permission from the planning authority before an established tree can be felled apply also to the trees on church property. The judgment Re St Kenelm Upper Snodsbury [2001] Charles Mynors Ch (Worcester), which is reviewed in this post, provided an early consideration of the issues involved.

Until the making of the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2000 (SI 2047), which came into effect on 1 January 2001, it had merely been assumed that the faculty jurisdiction applied to the control of work on churchyard trees. That was made explicitly clear by the 2000 Rules. [2]

In November 2001, Chancellor Charles Mynors, sitting in the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Worcester, delivered a significant judgment setting out the approach which consistory courts should take when considering whether or not to grant a faculty for work on churchyard trees. The case concerned the churchyard at the parish of Upton Snodsbury, St Kenelm, where the church was of medieval origin but heavily restored in the Victorian period. It had been listed as a building of special historic and architectural interest, and the churchyard was within a conservation area. Continue reading →