Yew Tree Grove
A sanctuary for community rest, healing, study and prayer
Rematriation in Process:
Guardians of the land, friends of the body, protectors of the sacred and nurturers of community
Welcome home to yourself! We are Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli, founders of Yoga Nidra Network and co-authors of Yoga Nidra made easy, and we have lived with our family here at Yew Tree Grove since 2008. During this time, we have welcomed hundreds of students and seekers from Stroud and all over the world to rest, heal and learn on this land together. Before we arrived, the land and house were known as ‘Tanglewood’, because they had been neglected and depleted for many years. Following a complete renovation, deep ecosystemic land-healing work and a rededication to community service, the land has been rematriated for the purpose of serving planetary and personal healing. We invite you to join us and discover more.
The Story of Yew Tree Grove
There are 15 Irish Yew trees standing in a grove beneath a spring on this land. Since Paleolithic times, there have been peaceful human settlements at Yew Tree Grove. Stone-age tools have been found in the foundations of the property.
The main cottage, one of the oldest houses in the local area, was built in 1640, 10 years before the height of the witch burnings in England. Local historians have identified that female healers and midwives accused of witchcraft were burned on this site, around 1650. The house used to be located on the main thoroughfare between Stroud and Cirencester functioned as a brothel.
Our work restores respect for the deep feminine here at Yew Tree Grove.
In the Heart of A Sacred Waterway
Yew Tree Grove is situated in the midst of a Sacred Waterway, running all the way down from a source point in The Heavens (a big public green space just outside of central Stroud), to a waterfall, down to a spring, stream, river and canal. In this map opposite you can see Yew Tree Grove and some of the central places of special interest that configure themselves around the land here.
The spring has now been closed up, but we are working with local community members to re-open it and rededicate it to community health, as well as honouring the sacred waterways that surround it.
We are committed to
The ancestry of our hybrid & neurodiverse family is from India, South Africa and Ireland. We are committed to offering a warm and inclusive resting space for all humans. We offer bursary spaces for people who have been marginalised by colonialism due to their race, neurotype, abilities, gender, sexual orientation, class and income. Click here to find out more about our operating ethics.
As well as serving our local and extended human family, we are also in a process of recultivating connection with the land here through deep listening, ritual and community gatherings, and reciprocal, intuitive land-tending and growing.
The food that we serve here at Yew Tree Grove is either wild foraged or locally grown and we are committed to supporting local businesses through our work.
Radical Rest, Creativity & the Recovery of Intuition
Personal and planetary healing rests on a foundation of embodied understanding and intuitive knowing. It’s intuition that reconnects us to the wisdom of our bodies and the wisdom of the earth, and it’s intuition that reconnects us to the creative spirit that allows us to imagine new futures and to recover ancient ways of being human in harmony with nature. None of this possible when people are tired, and this is why radical acts of community rest are at the heart of the work we do here at Yew Tree Grove.
We’ve been holding space for radical rest since 1998. You can find out more about the Yoga Nidra Network and all of our offerings here.
