Harvest time as churchyards make space for grow-your-own

RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR IT IS a very British national shortage, with waiting lists running into years and even, in a few cases, decades. But green-fingered citizens whose faith in ever gaining an allotment is faltering could find their prayers answered – thanks to the church.

Parishes in England are giving over parts of their churchyards or neglected land around their buildings to cultivating fruit and vegetables as demand for grow-your-own food surges.

Clergy hope the idea will help churches forge new ties with their communities, many of whom have never attended services, as well as creating their own Eden.

The Church of England is unique in owning land in every neighbourhood of the country, and its 10,000 churchyards have been described as being like an extra national park.

At St John the Evangelist, Old Trafford in Manchester, volunteers grow everything from carrots to cape gooseberries, and thanks to a new polytunnel, the group even has its first melons.

Signs invite neighbours and passing schoolchildren to help themselves to anything ripe and to use the watering cans when plants look dry.

The vicar, the Rev John Hughes, said: “Unlike your own allotment, what we grow we expect the community to harvest, so it’s very permissive but people don’t abuse it.” The parish also has strong links with local allotments.

At All Saints church in Wolverhampton children grow a variety of crops, and at All Saints in Nottingham, a churchyard corner is cultivated by refugee women from Africa and the Middle East who have formed a gardening and cooking club.