Allestree is now the most favoured of Derby's residential suburbs, with large new housing estates. But it keeps its fine views over the valley of the Derwent, and what is old clings to its little hilltop in company with the church, the old cross-shaft set on a wall between the churchyard and the vicarage, and two fine old yews, one of which is as old as the story of the church.
Its gnarled and twisted trunk seems as if it had grown out of a fairy tale. Very fine it looks from the lychgate, and the lychgate itself, with its shingled roof, fits into a charming picture seen from under the yew, with a splendid Norman doorway inside the timber porch.
It is this doorway with its curious carvings which is the chief possession of a church made almost new in 1866. It retains its 13th century tower and part of the east wall of the chancel built at the same time; and under a 14th century founder's arch is a stone engraved with a cross which may have covered the grave of the builder of the first church here.
Here, are many memorials of the families of Allestree Hall, a house of about 1830 in a fine public park with a golf course. The oak stalls in the church, the altar in the lady chapel, and oak seats in the nave were all made by a village craftsman just before World War II.
