We started by tackling only small areas at a time with a patchwork of grass cutting by hand around the more special plants. With the help of a voluntary work party and hiring a truck, several years of shrub prunings and garden rubbish were carted away. By opening up new spaces to the light, we began to make a difference, and noticed smaller wildflowers, flying insects and crawling bugs we’d never noticed before: different varieties of bumble bees, hover flies, butterflies and moths, even the black caterpillars of the peacock butterfly feeding on the stinging nettles. Reference books to check on the types and species of what we were finding now became part of our armoury as we learnt more about identifying and recording what we found. The birds were another surprise. We had no idea there were so many different garden and wild birds breeding (and killing) on our two acres. Except for two more knowledgeable members, we were a fairly amateur group.

It took a couple of years of work managing more tasks each year but people began to notice the difference and those who could spare the time came to help. It took time and there was some opposition, especially from some older folk with relatives buried in the Churchyard, with complaints about “ disgraceful untidiness “,” the weeds should be cleared “, “ the cut grass needs clearing “, being the most common. We understood their point of view, and often they were just unaware of the help that might be needed to do these tasks, or the scale and costs involved.

Our payback is the pleasure of watching the seasons pass with the unexpected excitements of the constant changes of renewal, growth and colours in all their beautiful forms. The birds pairing and nesting in the nest boxes; wrens, blue and great tits, gold crests, also crows, pigeons and sparrow hawks vie for nest for sites in the higher trees. Magpies and woodpeckers show off their fine feathers and somewhere an owl leaves pellets under a yew tree. Young grey squirrels race around like kids in the playground, not everyone’s favourite but fun to see as youngsters.

The array of wild flowers are like a mobile tapestry of multi-coloured blooms, where butterflies flit through the grasses in the sun, so quickly it is very difficult to identify them at times.

Though controlling the grass remains a problem, there are other signs of change. We now have a log-pile or ‘hibernaculum ‘, for winter shelter where insects and other small creatures can hide and hibernate amongst the rotting wood. Also we have built an insect hotel (cost free) made from recycled pallets, bricks, broken drain-pipes stuffed with layers of hay, twigs, rotting wood, hollow weed stems and fir cones. It is covered with chicken netting and has proved a fascinating attraction to children and other visitors to the churchyard. These ‘hotels’ are known to harbour hundreds of species of beetles, bees and other bugs during cold weather, which then attracts birds and other wildlife in the spring.

I don’t think anyone of us realised quite what a task we had taken on two years ago but is still very much “work in progress”. It has been most rewarding and we hope to spread the word and encourage more young people to come to visit and discover more about our Wildlife.

A positive and inspiring article—thank you so much Ann

© Ann Pugh

Ann Pugh has written this lovely piece about her churchyard at St Stephen’s Church Acomb, York

Churchyards have always been the last place of rest for human beings after death. Even before our history, the dead were either cremated or buried in a location near to a holy site where it was believed the spirit of the dead person would be nearer to heaven. In Britain this has usually been on the sanctified ground around the Parish Church. It was only in the last 200 years that the population of this country increased so much that Public Cemeteries were developed. Parish churchyards were part of the Church land and many go back over 1500 years if the church had been built during Saxon times which often meant that the actual land, ie. underlying rocks, stones and soil and even turf had never been tainted by modern fertilisers or weed killers. So all the present wildlife; trees, plants, insects, birds, fungi and lichens have been able to grow and thrive in balance with each for hundreds of years. Now, as Great Britain becomes more populated, towns and cities are expanding like an invasive new growth. The precious green land of forests, moorlands, lakes and mountains is slowly being eroded by a noisy modern world of brick and concrete, tarmac airports and motorways, tower blocks, factories and us. All our wildlife in its many and various forms is threatened by lack of space, peace and quiet. There could be a time when there are not enough places for all the multitude of species to breed the next generations of life to keep the nature we all take for granted, in balance. The thought of that is unimaginably bleak.

So far our Parish Churchyards have been protected from too much invasion by man’s activities . Family graves have been respected and traditionally the Sexton and his helpers have mown the hay each season and kept these special gardens for those who have died, in order. Nowadays volunteers have tried to keep order but times have changed and there are not so many around with the time or commitment to be able to do the work and many graveyards are left to dereliction, much to the delight of the wildlife, which then can become overgrown and unsightly and only of interest to seekers of family histories to find ancestral graves for their dates and names.

Several years ago in our own Churchyard at St Stephen’s Acomb, the constant growth of wild grasses over the tombstones was becoming a persistent and expensive problem. Here an ageing congregation combined with fewer volunteers each year resulted in an increasingly overgrown and neglected scene as it all returned to its natural state. It was suggested at a Parish Meeting that perhaps some positive conservation might be preferable. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust were consulted and made a preliminary assessment with a helpful management plan. This gave us a more hopeful way of coping with the challenge, with some practical suggestions that could benefit and encourage the interesting signs and clues to the flora and fauna we already had at our feet. Without fully realising it, we began to see the extent of the wildlife life around. It was a revelation of small discoveries, and we were well aware that it would be a big commitment.

Y o r k s h i r e L i v i n g C h u r c h y a r d P r o j e c t p 4 A u t u m n 2 0 1 2

YORKSHIRE LIVING CHURCHYARD PROJECT

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust ~ 1 St George’s Place YORK YO24 1GN ~ www.ywt.org.uk

Part-time Churchyard Officer ~ Elizabeth Hardcastle (Usual YWT days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays)

tel: 01904 659570; email: elizabeth.hardcastle@ywt.org.uk or info@ywt.org.uk

Yorkshire Living Churchyard Project

Patron: The Archbishop of York Autumn 2012

Welcome to the Autumn Newsletter 2012 . . .

THANK YOU to all who hosted events this year—

details of the events are on p3.

THANK YOU for your contributions to the newsletter

and please keep them coming!

PLEASE display the newsletter on your church notice

board. If you would like an extra copy for this, just

ask.

AND REMEMBER if you would like a church-related

event publicised between now and the spring

newsletter, I can send details to those of you with

email.

THANK YOU to all who answered my ongoing request

for email addresses. There are still about 200

newsletters going out in the post—expensive and time

consuming to photocopy and put into envelopes—so

if you could receive the newsletter by email, please let

me know.

AND—a Happy and Blessed Christmas to you all and

every good wish for 2013— Elizabeth

Spring flowers at St Botolph’s Church, Bossall, one of the earliest churchyards to become a

‘Living Churchyard’.

The church has a long and very interesting history.

Bossall churchyard is species-rich and is designated a SINC— a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation.

It lies between the A64 and the A166 just north of York.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England Number 409650; Registered Charity Number 210807

Y o r k s h i r e L i v i n g C h u r c h y a r d P r o j e c t p 2 A u t u m n 2 0 1 2

Working party at St Matthew’s

Church Lightcliffe

Julian and Tony—the two YLCP volunteers who

helped draw up Lightcliffe’s management

plan—and the children with a headstone rubbing

The colourful sward at St Edmund’s

Church Kellington

A small tortoiseshell feeding on valerian at

St Mary Magdalene’s

Church Whiston

A beautiful beech tree had to be felled

at St Wilfrid’s Church Calverley—

but was transformed by chain saw artist Shane Green into

the Calverley Angel

Snowdrops at Scotton Friends’ Burial Ground

The rich flora at Staintondale churchyard . . . and a quiet corner to sit and rest . . .

2012 CHURCHYARD EVENTS

Rain, rain, cold wind, more rain!!

In April (on a wet day!) ‘Mission Earth: A Christian Response to Climate Change’ was held, beginning with a service in York Minster and then moving to York St John University for a variety of workshops including the Yorkshire Living Churchyard Project.

At the end of April St Chad’s Church again took part in the annual Leeds ‘Treasures Revealed’ with activities for children and wildlife and geology walks. The geology walk was so interesting (as ever) that the intermittent heavy rain and strong wind was no deterrent to participants. Do you know where Balmoral granite for headstones is quarried? No, not Scotland . . . !

The following day ‘Messy Church’ at the tiny ancient church of St Mary at Marton-in-the-Forest (near Stillington north of York) was cancelled because of the atrocious weather.

In mid-May was the joint event between YLCP and Ellerton Priory Church. Phil Thomas, a very engaging speaker and one of the Priory Trustees, told us about the Priory and the management of the Derwent Ings. Sadly, unsettled weather reduced attendance. www.ellertonpriory.co.uk is full of information about the Priory, church architecture—and there are delicious cake recipes!

Mid-June’s rain and unseasonal weather blighted Lockington’s Open Gardens and Open Churchyard. In spite of this, a financial profit was made for the village—and through the enthusiasm of Brian the YWT recruiter, stationed in the warm haven of the village hall, out of the rain with tea and cakes on hand, YWT gained 5 new members.

In early July Acomb Church in York had an Open Churchyard and Flower Festival Weekend. This is a very large churchyard with wonderful views over to the White Horse and lots of facilities for wildlife—including an insect hotel with a living roof. On p4 is a reflection on the churchyard and its management.

By July the weather had picked up and the final event, at Bridlington Priory, was blessed with sunshine which was reflected in the good attendance. In 2013 Bridlington Priory celebrates its foundation as an Augustinian Priory 900 years ago with a programme of special events—information on its website and, space permitting, information in the YLCP Spring newsletter.

2013 CHURCHYARD EVENTS

A Snowdrop Weekend is planned for one of our ‘Living Churchyards’. When the date is confirmed, information will be added to YWT’s website and will be sent to those of you with email or you can ring YWT early in January. If there are any other church snowdrop

weekends, do please let me know and I can publicise them.

Apart from snowdrops the events diary is blank! If you think your church would like to host an Open Churchyard, let me know and we can discuss it. Usually these run from about 12.45 to 4.30 with a PowerPoint Presentation about ‘God’s Acre’, followed by a guided walk round the churchyard and light refreshments. There is a charge for the refreshments, otherwise the events are free but donations towards the work of YWT and to the host church are always appreciated and put to good use.

Y o r k s h i r e L i v i n g C h u r c h y a r d P r o j e c t p 3 A u t u m n 2 0 1 2

MARY COLWELL is an award winning TV, radio and internet producer who makes programmes for the BBC and the independent sector. She is also a consultant on the relationship between religion and the natural world and a writer of short stories.

Last year, Mary’s Curlew Media and Consultancy made three short videos ‘Nurture in His Name’. These can be accessed through her website -www.curlewmedia.com. Do watch the films particularly as one of them features and names Birkin and Welburn, two of our Yorkshire ’Living Churchyards’ - and we think there is possibly a shot of Finningley, too. Also on the site is her superb article ‘Flowers of the Fairest’ about churchyard wild flowers, their names and why we should conserve them.

WELCOME TO THE

WILDLIFE OF

EASTERN YORKSHIRE!

The Yorkshire Nature Triangle in eastern Yorkshire is well known among local naturalists for its rich fauna and flora. It is bounded by the east coast from Filey Brigg to Spurn Point, by North Cave, the Wolds and the River Hull catchment to the west, and by the Humber estuary to the south. Within it there are three flagship Nature Reserves—and three ‘Living Churchyards’ have already agreed to be included in the Triangle and we hope for several more. Visit the Triangle via YWT’s website for more information.

Hibernating ladybirds in Finningley churchyard

WAKEFIELD’S ‘LIVING CEMETERIES’

This year YLCP began working with Wakefield Bereavement Services to ‘green’ parts of three of its cemeteries — Castleford, Pontefract and Altofts. A change in the mowing regime allowed a good variety of wild flower species to flower in June and July and then set seed. This was an encouraging and inspiring result for the first season of the new management, adding colour and attracting bees, butterflies and other insects to the cemeteries.

PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHTS: Bossall © Andrew Weston Lightcliffe © Angela Monaghan Kellington © Mary McCartney Whiston/Finningley/

Staintondale © Tricia Haigh Calverley © David Badger Cawood snowdrops © Margaret Brearly Scotton © Cath and John Richardson