GOD’S ACRE

OASES OF CALM IN BUILT- UP AREAS, CHURCH GRAVEYARDS ARE A REFUGE FOR NATURE AS WELL AS PEOPLE, SAYS STEFAN BUCZACKI

From the earliest pagan sites to modern urban cemeteries, burial grounds have always enjoyed a sacred, protected status. However, graveyards only became truly significant once they began to be enclosed and isolated – insulated – from the surrounding area. From a wildlife perspective, it is those that have been continuously enclosed for many centuries that are of the greatest interest.

In Britain, since the Reformation, there has been no consistent tradition of re-using graves as in many other European countries, so helping to ensure the graveyard stays undisturbed. As populations grew, many churchyards were closed for new burials, their ancient graves rarely visited. While the church itself may have been in regular use, the burial ground was often neglected and, unlike a garden, no one added fertiliser to ‘improve’ the natural ingredients. Over time it began to return to the surrounding landscape from which it was born, and only recently has it been appreciated how valuable these ancient havens are.

A churchyard is often referred to as an oasis, a word that originally meant a small fertile place in the Libyan desert, but its modern definition is a piece of productive land in an otherwise unproductive area; its various meanings are all appropriate to the churchyard – an area supporting luxuriant plant growth, a place of calm in the midst of a difficult or hectic situation and a place of relief or refuge.

Of the 10,000 or so Church of England graveyards, which it is said collectively cover the area of a small national park, around 6,000 are now managed specifically for their natural history interest. Wildlife thrives among the headstones, from the graveyard beetle to the mighty yew. Slow-growing lichens have time to establish on graves, church walls and boundaries. Moles like the soft, undisturbed earthworm-rich soil between the gravestones and pipistrelle bats like old buildings in which to roost. The roof of a warm south porch is a good place to look.

Tawny and barn owls (sometimes called the church owl in northern England) hunt for voles in the unmown grass, while martins build their mud-and-plant nests on the many ledges of more ornate churches. Insect life abounds; for a bride and groom to see a spider on their way to the altar is thought to bring good luck. The natural secrets to be found in God’s acre include plants and creatures that disappeared from the surrounding area many centuries ago and now represent real microcosms of long lost settlements or landscapes; windows into a truly ancient time.

CHURCHYARD CONSERVATION

Disused churches do not have to be surrounded by unkempt wilderness. However, looking after a churchyard for conservation is not the same as domestic gardening for wildlife. Wildlife gardening is about the creation of something that mimics a natural habitat but did not occur there naturally. By contrast, churchyard management for wildlife is about conserving what is there, rather than trying to create something that is not.

A careful survey of what you’ve got, ideally with expert help, then a plan of action are the first tasks. Managing grass is some of the most beneficial work; leaving some areas unmown until late summer to allow them to set seed, ideally leaving the cuttings on the ground for a week so the seeds are shed. And not using fertiliser or weedkillers. Sowing isolated wildflower patches might be pleasing to the eye but can look plain silly in a churchyard. Planting native hedges along a boundary, however, will encourage birds to feed and nest.

If the boundary is a dry-stone wall, treasure it and preserve it as a haven for snails and other small creatures. Mosses will colonise it, followed by small ferns and flowering plants. Even a wooden fence will house butterfly and moth pupae and clusters of hibernating ladybirds. Use a non-toxic wood preservative only once – when it is first erected – and avoid ever doing it again. Install nest boxes and cut hedges only when fledglings have left the nest. Whether or not you are motivated by faith, churchyards appeal to anyone interested in local history and the natural world. They may remind us of our mortality, but they also set before us vivid examples of how nature, providing we care for it, will be here long after we’re gone.

Adapted from Earth to Earth: A Natural History of Churchyards (Unicorn) by Professor Stefan Buczacki, who is a renowned botanist, author of more than 60 books and a long-time panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time.