People love to visit churches, chapels and cathedrals. Recent visitor surveys have shown that more people are visiting cathedrals this year, with an increase in visitors of 17% since 2022. They come for a variety reasons, attending services and concerts, enjoying the heritage and history and visiting exhibitions. This increase in visitors is the result of hard work and lateral thinking, focussing on making these special places appeal to those who may not be regular attendees.
Actually, it’s possible that even more people are visiting burial grounds, be they churchyards, chapel yards, cemeteries and of course cathedral grounds. A survey in 2018 found that more than half the visitors to churchyards were neither entering the church building or visiting a particular grave, they were there to enjoy the peace, tranquillity, bird song, flowers and history of these special outdoor places. They were also making use of facilities such as surfaced paths, benches, ramps and other accessibility features. For those of you who care for and love your local churchyard, can you help to make it even more welcoming for visitors? Is there any information on the more interesting memorials to be visited, the locally famous or infamous or perhaps particularly beautiful stone carving? Could you put up a list of the wildlife to be seen at different times of year or steer people to spend time in the presence of a veteran tree and think how long it has been growing there?
Managing a churchyard for both people and nature really creates a space that looks cared for, is accessible but still full of the peaceful and enriching sights and sounds of wildlife that people so enjoy. By the autumn, all of your grassland areas will be cut short but can you leave a small patch of tussocky grass, nettles and hogweed around the back, perhaps by a compost heap, so that insects and other invertebrates have somewhere to overwinter? This will be used by frogs, toads, newts and slowworms who will be feeding on these invertebrates as well as by small mammals and birds. Hedgehogs in particular need shelter like this as well as food such as worms, slugs and beetles.
Do you have any berry bearing shrubs or hedges? Could they be left until the late winter before pruning or trimming in order to feed and shelter birds and small mammals? If there is ivy present you may have noticed the buzz of ivy bees on the flowers in September, flowers which have now been replaced by small black berries. Birds such as thrushes, blackbirds, pigeons and blackcaps love these berries which are rich in fat so good winter tuck! Autumn is a great time to make deadwood piles from windblown twigs and branches, pile up autumn leaves to rot down and perhaps erect some bird and bat boxes.
All of this work will enhance your churchyard so that it is teeming with even more life next spring and summer, giving pleasure to locals and visitors alike.
All the best,
Diocesan Churchyard Environmental Advisor
www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk - individuals and groups in the diocese receive 20% members discount on all CfGA materials. Use the discount code diomem22