January 2022
The start of a new year seems like a good time to have a look back at how far we’ve come with our project to improve the old churchyard at St Paternus. It was back in August 2018 that we first held a meeting in the village hall to consult on our proposals to make the churchyard a better environment for wildlife and for parishioners, and it was February 2019 when we started officially working with Cornwall Council contractors Cormac as a volunteer group.
Here’s what the churchyard was like back in 2018, and some of the issues at the time:
Images show: 1 Hogweed dominating the churchyard. 2 Scouring caused by inappropriate cutting. 3 Damage caused to monuments by both vegetation and mowing. 4 Visited graves were obscured and inaccessible. 5 Cuttings left to rot on the ground, causing thatching and nutrient enrichment.
Our solution to these problems was to devise a cutting regime that would control the dominant species like hogweed, and allow wildflowers to flower and set seed – the importance of churchyards in particular is that the land has never been improved for agriculture and so the seed bank is often rich and diverse if given the right conditions to flourish. Collecting the cuttings stops the nutrients from being returned to the soil, helping to create better conditions for meadow species, and for the multitude of animal life that depend on them.
This is where we are now, 3 years on:
It’s still a work in progress, but I hope most would agree that we’ve come a long way. We’ve added nest boxes, a bug hotel and a hedgehog house. We’ve organised regular rakes and other community activities. We’ve identified and recorded nearly 200 species. We’ve improved access so that the paths are no longer overgrown, and the trails we maintain through the meadow areas further open up the site. We also try to ensure that any graves that are regularly visited are accessible – do let us know if you would like a grave to be added to our regularly maintained areas.
What we can achieve as volunteers is limited by how many people are willing to help, and of course equipment and funding. We have no shortage of plans and ideas for the future, so if you would like to help in any way, please do get in touch.
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