The Chestnut Tree on Wylde's Tomb
A choirboy's confiscated chestnut was thrown behind the stone body of Sir Edmund by the sexton. It germinated in 1830, grew over 10 feet tall, and died in the summer of 1895.
'On the north side of the chancel is the half-canopied tomb of Sir Edmund Wylde, a High Sherriff of Worcestershire who died in 1620, which is linked with the remarkable story of a chestnut tree. Here is an extract from "The Rambler in Worcestershire" by John Noake, dated 1848, which is an eye witness report of Wylde's tomb.'
"From the top issues a fine branch of a horse chestnut tree, which has been growing for some years and now seems in flourishing condition. The appearance of a tree growing out of a solid mass of masonry in the interior of a church was so singular that I was led to enquire the cause, and found that some years ago the then sexton of the church, who was known among the younger fry as a pertinacious stickler for propriety, observing a lad playing with a horse-chestnut when he ought to have been digesting the sermon, gave him a fillip on the ear with one hand and threw the chestnut away with the other. The chestnut alighted on the top of the monument where in the course of time it formed mould to itself and gradually shot out, till now it hangs most gracefully over the recumbent figure of the worthy knight, whose representatives, I understand, will not allow it to be removed." (From 'Kempsey Collection' page 42.)
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