Why are churchyards important for nature conservation?
Cornwall’s churchyards can provide a refuge for wildlife as well as a pleasant, reflective place for both the congregation and visitors. In a landscape where many habitats have been lost to development or changes in agricultural practices, churchyards can offer an oasis of habitats where once common plants still exist, unaffected by chemicals or ploughing. They also provide ‘stepping stones’ or corridors, enabling wildlife to thrive and adapt in response to both local and global challenges such as climate change.
A wide range of wildlife can be found in churchyards including bats, birds, insects, reptiles and mammals. Churchyards are also very important for lichens because of the wide range of stone types present in the buildings themselves and the gravestones.
A churchyard managed with sympathy and understanding for wildlife can look well cared for and be attractive to people as well as plants and animals. Management for wildlife can have other benefits including the need for less labour, reducing in particular the burden of very frequent grass mowing.
We ask churchyards wishing to join the scheme to consider adopting the following four principles:
1. Involve the community
Involving the local community through a school, parish council or local group can benefit a churchyard project greatly and help to qualify for funding. Involvement can range from getting people out for a days practical work, to having a wildlife trail for children in the churchyard. People are more likely to be interested in the management and future of the churchyard if they feel involved in looking after it.
2. Adopt a Wildlife Policy
Adopt an ecological management policy. This would be something listing key principles the churchyard would follow for wildlife management. For example, statements on grass cutting regimes, interpretation and pesticide use. This does not have to be a detailed management plan, it can be a simple record in the form of an annotated map, with areas for management marked on it.
3. Gather records
Keeping simple records is useful for future reference and comparison. Records of wildlife, management and financial records are all useful to show changes in the churchyard over time and give a picture of which management works best.
4. Provide interpretation
Living Churchyards should provide interpretation about the scheme, wildlife and management in the churchyard. Interpretation is important as it explains why things are done in a certain way and can be used as a tool to trigger visitor interest. There are many forms of interpretation such as leaflets or signs highlighting interesting facts about certain species, a guided walk or an activity trail for children.
An area of long grass to allow wildflowers to set seed may be considered untidy or unmanaged, but with a sign explaining why the area is treated in this way, the visitor is likely to be interested rather than critical. Interpretation about managing for wildlife in the churchyard can also encourage people to manage their own gardens for wildlife.
How can Cornwall’s Living Churchyard project help you?
The Living Churchyard project may be able to help with the following:
- Provide support and advice to those interested in managing their local churchyard for wildlife.
- Hire the 'God's Acre Trimmer', a machine specifically designed for grass cutting in churchyards to those participating in the scheme.
- Carrying out churchyard wildlife surveys.*
- Preparation of churchyard wildlife management plans/maps.*
- Securing grant funding for churchyard wildlife projects.*
- Carrying out churchyard risk assessments and memorial safety testing.
- Involving the local community.
- Enabling networking with other Living Churchyard groups in Cornwall.
* Subject to funding
Cornwall's Living Churchyards project is currently funded by the Tanner Trust, and we are very grateful to the Trust for its support.
We also thank past funders of the project, the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and the Helen and Geoffrey de Freitas Charitable Trust for providing support.
