Lichfield Diocese Lychgate Autumn / Winter 2019

Churchyard Award Scheme We appreciate the hard work of volunteers across the diocese in caring for our churchyards. Since 1993, the Churchyard Award Scheme has encouraged parishes to take care of the sacred grounds which surround our church buildings. Our churchyards offer comfort and solace to those remembering loved ones, and can be a place where people encounter God in beauty, peace, and silence. The Scheme is free to join. A panel of volunteer judges visit through the summer, prior an award ceremony in the autumn. There is a separate certificate for places Sign up to our where diversity of native flora and fauna is actively promoted. Through the Scheme, advice is shared and e-newsletter achievements celebrated. This year over 40 churches If you would like to receive our quarterly e-newsletters, participated, urban and rural, large and small, all please send us your e-mail address or sign up directly receiving diocesan recognition for their care of God’s on our website. Each issue contains short articles with Acre. links to current news in burial ground conservation. Application forms and further details are available at www.lichfield.anglican.org/churchyard_awards @

The Church of around Staffordshire, northern Shropshire and the Black Country Lichfield Diocese Lychgate Autumn / Winter 2019

In 2020 Caring for God’s Acre will be 20 years the people we meet; working old. Throughout this time, we have been raising away in their own ‘patch,’ awareness about how brilliant burial grounds are giving us inspiration. Please and supporting those fantastic people who manage help us to celebrate our 20th them, usually on a voluntary basis. birthday. Join in with The It’s thanks for you, our members that we are still Year of the Burial Ground; tell here, still doing this vital work and growing in our people about Caring for God’s capacity and influence with every passing year. It’s Acre and keep supporting not always been easy, (the current economic situation and encouraging us! is particularly challenging), but it’s always been fascinating, with the enthusiasm and commitment of

itinerary – inspiring attendees to Run an event as part of Love your investigate and record in burial Burial Ground Week Year of the grounds and show how records can Sure to be the biggest yet – the be used to help with management second week of June. Burial Ground decisions and interpretation. Enter our Photographic More details to be released later this competition 2020 year but in the meantime, here are More details to be released in the dates for your diary: 2020 will be the 20th Anniversary December. Thursday March 12th of Caring for God’s Acre and we Use the year to raise the profile of National Museum, Cardiff are celebrating with a ‘Year of the your own burial ground Thursday March 26th Burial Ground’. Contact us for press release The Circle, Sheffield During the year we will be templates and ideas for articles to • Enjoy our detailed monthly blog partnering with experts and go into your local newsletters. posts from experts in the field organisations to raise the profile Join us on social media From memorials to migrating birds, and celebrate the unique heritage visit our website or sign up to our Using the hashtag within these special sites. e-newsletter to learn fascinating #yearoftheburialground so we can There will be many ways of facts about all things burial ground make contact, retweet and see what becoming involved: related. you are up to. • Attend one of our conferences • Submit your wildlife sightings If you want to be involved please We have organised two ‘Beautiful To our new Beautiful Burial Ground e-mail Prue and she will e-mail Burial Ground’ conferences in database and look up what wildlife you our Year of the Burial Ground March. These days will bring is in a burial ground near you! Information Pack later this year – together experts for a packed [email protected] , 01588 673041 Love your Burial Ground Week - 24 hours in the Churchyard Written by Julie Howarth from St Editha’s Churchyard, Church Eaton

On 15th June, in St Editha’s churchyard, we feathered visitors, spider around for the last time undertook a bold project as part of ‘Love Your Burial web traps, memory cards and gathered our things Ground’ week in conjunction with the Beautiful for the day, ladybird and at 10 a.m. on Sunday Burial Ground project run by Caring for God’s Acre. hotels and much more. 16th June, we completed We welcomed during our 24 hour vigil and what the day a local amateur a superb time it was- time photographer who took out to observe, listen hundreds of shots at (to the dawn chorus), different times of the day meet, chat and share. An and night and we look unforgettable day when forward to perhaps an we learned so much more exhibition of photos at a about our churchyard to later date. take us forward into the Another part of our future planning – mission amazing day involved an accomplished! outdoor service at 3p.m. Please see our displays in outside with more than the church. 12 of us singing songs Thank God for our and hymns about nature beautiful world. as well as reading poems followed by homemade Julie Jacqui Hodgkinson and in flora, fauna and even scones, tea and coffee- myself pitched camp the 150 species of U.K. what a fabulous behind the church at dandelion! We spotted act of celebration 10a.m. on Saturday and logged 57 varieties and community. morning and set up our of creature and following Following our stall – a day and night’s a visit by knowledgeable night-time worth of activities for friends, a list was later vigil, the 8a.m. all ages to celebrate made of 42 different service on our churchyard and wildflowers in our Sunday morning to connect with the churchyard, all proof that was really well community. Luckily, it our burial ground is home attended by was market day in Church to a vast variety of species regulars and other Eaton, so after shopping of flora and fauna and an supporters which and breakfast at the essential part of our local began outside in market in the Institute, environment. the churchyard visitors made their way During the day, using and continued over to see what we were binoculars and cameras, in church, all doing and to have a chat lard, cheese, bird seed, rounded off by and a look around. sticks, porridge oats and a warm bacon We had the most amazing variety of other stocks, we rolls and tea and day chatting to visitors, managed to photograph coffee after the taking walks around with and log our visitors, make service. Following people knowledgeable feeding stations for the this, we scouted Lichfield Diocese Lychgate Autumn / Winter 2019 Recording update In 2018 we launched our Burial Grounds recording form, making it easier for everybody to submit their biological records via our website. This spring and summer we were thrilled to see the form taken up by lots of enthusiastic recorders, so much so that we can only mention a fraction of those involved. Here is a glimpse of some birds, butterflies and of the highlights: bees to name but a few Shropshire county species groups, and we ecologist Dan Wrench saw records coming kicked off the year with in from Herefordshire, snowdrops in February, Northamptonshire followed up by a Great and Worcestershire in Spotted Woodpecker. particular. At the end of Three recorders did a May we ran a memorable spot of birdwatching BioBlitz at the wonderful in ; highlights York Cemetery, where we included Barn Owl and were joined by mammal, Little Owl. invertebrate, lichen and moss experts. I managed In March, one of our to make a brief visit to Shropshire volunteers Holy Trinity Goodramgate, Anna McCann, met a tiny churchyard with a hedgehog whilst providing some respite botanising at St Chad’s from the hustle and bustle in Montford. I took the of central York. opportunity presented by a March wedding to take a Our second BioBlitz of look around King Charles the year was held in June the Martyr in Newtown; at St Michael’s Lichfield, a site with botanical organised with the potential and deserving of indefatigable Ray Allen. a more in-depth survey. At We were supported by a Falmouth Cemetery, Kevin whole host of recorders, resulting in records for Thomas shared records to submit records almost weekly for 6 different types of bees whilst 126 different species, and bringing throughout 2019. Margaret the total for the churchyard up to an Richard Comont of the Bumblebee Markland and Jane Ing kindly Conservation Trust recorded a wide amazing 1,258. The Dartmoor based contributed to the Shropshire Moor Meadows group got stuck array of species groups at Wyche: Burial Grounds botany efforts and All Saints, Worcestershire, including into churchyards and together we a training day at Hopesay rewarded have encouraged churchwardens to plants, fungi, birds, insects, participants with Slowworms and crustaceans, and molluscs. manage areas of their churchyards both Smooth and Palmate Newts. as wildflower meadows. April saw records pouring in as As we came into May our local our conservation volunteers noted In August we received a record of volunteers continued to make a Grass snake from church warden species whilst out and about, records as did Tammy Stretton including plants, birds, amphibians Jim Logan of Bromfield, this species from Montgomeryshire Wildlife is known to use compost heaps and reptiles. Down by the seaside Trust who is recording in Welshpool Val Appleyard submitted the first for laying eggs (look out for empty Cemetery, now seen as a potential egg cases). We were lucky enough of many records for Woodvale Local Wildlife Site. Back in Norfolk, Cemetery, Brighton, continuing to have John Walters recording Martin Greenland was spotting invertebrates for us in South , Buckfastleigh and South Coordinator George ran 64 training complex health needs who find Brent; check out Twitter for his sessions which also yielded many burial grounds refreshingly excellent invertebrate illustrations. records and we now have burial accessible, blind or partially sighted Carole Tyrrell has been making ground information from 33 people who have learned bird song, plant records throughout spring counties and 592 burial grounds. children who have made their first and summer at the Grade 1 listed We’ve had records from biological record. Brompton Cemetery in London, and churchyards, chapel yards, Thank you to everyone who has she hasn’t stopped there, visiting cemeteries and green burial submitted records. We would love other lovely cemeteries such as sites. Individuals have joined to keep this recording momentum Greatness Cemetery. in as have church groups, going, please help us further the As the summer months progressed, families, interest groups, local coverage of recording next year. You more and more records came in authorities, professionals and local can submit records via our website, from all over England and . environmental records centres. post, or send us an email liam@cfga. During this time our Community We’ve worked with people with org.uk. Lichfield Diocese Lychgate Autumn / Winter 2019 Birds in Burial Grounds The UK’s birds are in trouble and burial grounds can help. Turtle Dove has experienced a 93% population decline since 1970. Over the same period, other species with spectacular “crashes” in numbers include Spotted Flycatcher (86%), Starling (78%), Nightingale (73%), House Sparrow (71%), Cuckoo (63%), and Song Thrush (50%), along with many other familiar and well-loved birds. The reasons for this are many: ideal for nesting (climate change, intensification and rearing young. of agriculture, environmental They are also often pollution in various guises and stable ecosystems illegal persecution) but habitat loss (many having been is among the most significant. Birds unchanged for require a habitat that will provide centuries) with ancient food, shelter and a suitable nesting trees and pastures site. Such amenities are provided by and have escaped the nature reserves as well as a range excesses of fertiliser and herbicide Robin, Goldcrest, Wren, Dunnock, of non-traditional habitats such as use characteristic of farmed land House Sparrow, Spotted Flycatcher, gardens, military bases, motorway and even gardens. They typically Nuthatch and Starling, Blue, Great verges and railway embankments. have mature tree cover, both and Coal Tit. Among these desirable habitats are native and exotic, broad-leafed • Finches – Greenfinch. Siskin, burial grounds! and conifer, with tree groupings, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Brambling, Why are these areas attractive hedges and sometimes a shrub Redpoll, Hawfinch, Bullfinch and to birds? Most obviously, they understorey. All of these provide Linnet. are often ‘islands’ of enhanced a variety of food sources and nest sites. A mixture of tree types is • Pigeons and doves – Woodpigeon, biodiversity in a surrounding Stock Dove and Collared Dove. ‘sea’ of often impoverished valuable to birds that raise several habitat. This is clearly the case broods in a breeding season, which • Crows – Carrion Crow, Rook, Jay for an urban churchyard, for start early and may use a conifer as and Jackdaw. example, surrounded by paved a nesting site for the first nest, when • Various raptors – including Barn, and unvegetated land uses, as deciduous trees are leafless, and Tawny and Little Owl, Peregrine, in the inner city or industrial may switch later in the season. The Sparrowhawk and Kestrel. best sites offer a wealth of nesting, areas. However, it may be equally • Swift, Swallow and House Martin. true of a rural site if surrounding feeding and roosting sites including fields support intensive types of external building walls with • Warblers – Blackcap, Chiffchaff, agriculture with heavy pesticide buttresses, gargoyles, grotesques, Whitethroat and Willow Warbler. and herbicide use. Burial grounds ledges, nooks and crannies, towers • Great and Lesser Spotted are, of course, usually relatively and spires, moss- and lichen- Woodpeckers. covered memorial stones, walls small compared to the area used On this list alone, there are nine and crypts, ivy-covered trees and by a highly mobile creature like species on the Red List of Birds stonework, lawn-like short grass, a bird, and will act as production of Conservation Concern and meadows, shrubs, ‘untidy’ areas and and dispersal sites, ‘seeding’ the eleven on the Amber List – clearly fruit- and seed-bearing plants. surrounding areas with more burial grounds have the potential unusual species. They will also What bird species are commonly for nurturing some of our more receive incomers from poorer found in churchyards and burial threatened bird species while habitats, so that what constitutes grounds? Remarkably, there are not supporting healthy populations of a ‘churchyard bird’ will depend as many surveys available but those our commoner, much-loved species. much on the surroundings as the that I found mention 66 species. Written by John Arnfield, Chair of characteristics of the churchyard Among these are: Shropshire Ornithological Society. itself. • The thrushes – Blackbird, Song See the blog section of our website to Burial grounds are frequently and Mistle Thrushes and winter read John’s article on How to improve quiet and undisturbed habitats, visitors, Redwing and Fieldfare, burial grounds for birds. A-Z of Churchyard Conservation is for Epitaph

An Epitaph is a short text honouring a deceased to his brother Burgesses for perpetual imitation, and a person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is useful lesson to the Parliamentary Representatives of the Einscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also Borough, that Opulence and Power cannot alone secure be used in a figurative sense. independent suffrage. As well as our passion for burial grounds as reservoirs Bishop’s Castle was a notorious Rotten Borough at the of biodiversity, at Caring for God’s Acre we are also time and it was said that the most lucrative occupation interested in the fascinating social history that they of the townsfolk was bribery! In the year Matthew contain. Marston died, winning the election cost the 2nd Lord We recently talked to the Heritage Resource Centre Clive (son of Clive of India) £10,188.2s.6d, including in the small market town of Bishop’s Castle, just a few £6,515.3s.4d for entertaining the burgesses in the local miles from our offices in South Shropshire, about some pubs, £1,285 for ribbons, £511 for a band, £107.17s 6d unusual headstones that cast a light on the town’s for strewing flowers and £31.10s for five strongarm men history. from Bridgnorth. The African’s Grave The French Napoleonic Colonel’s Grave The best known of the headstones is a Grade II listed Bishop’s Castle was a parole town during the headstone with the inscription: Napoleonic wars and a number of French officers who Here lieth the body of ID had been taken as prisoners of war were housed in the town. One of these, Louis Paces, Lieutenant Colonel a Native of Africa of Light Horse, Knight of the Orders of the Two Sicilies who died in this Town and Spain died in the town 1814 and was buried in Sept 9th 1801 the churchyard. The inscription on his headstone is in French and was presumably erected by his fellow God hath made of one Blood, all nations of Men. officers. Act 17 ch. ver. 26. This inscription raises a number of questions. Who was And finally… ID? Why was an African in rural Shropshire at the very A plain headstone marks the grave of Bishop’s Castle’s beginning of the 19th century? And most intriguing of very own French Lieutenant’s woman. In 1813 Mary all, who erected this beautifully carved and embellished Morgan married a French officer who later returned to headstone at a time when it was mainly the graves of France with their young son Louis, leaving Mary behind. the rich that were marked with a stone. A likely clue is Louis became a whaler and travelled to New Zealand the quotation from the Acts of the Apostles, which was where he married an Aboriginal princess. Descendants frequently used as a text by the Abolitionist movement. of the marriage recently visited the town to honour the ID died just six years before the 1807 Abolition of memory of their ancestor, who lived to the ripe old age the Slave Trade Act and the stone was added to the of 82, and to share her extraordinary story. 2017 English Heritage list of “Sites of Memory” which What interesting or unusual headstones do you have in commemorates the bicentenary of the Act. your local burial ground? Do they give you a new view The Honest Burgess’ Grave on the history of your local community? The year after ID’s death another equally rare inhabitant Caring for God’s Acre is currently supporting a project with of the town died, and was commemorated in a lengthy the PCC and the Heritage Resource Centre to conserve and and detailed epitaph on his headstone, which reads: investigate the history of a number of Georgian tombs. To the memory of Matthew Marston. He departed this The information above comes from research carried out by life May 29th 1802, the oldest Burgess of the Borough. Bishop’s Castle Heritage Resource Centre and other local His steady and uncorrupt conduct presents an example history groups. The Church of England around Staffordshire, northern Shropshire and the Black Country Membership The partnership between Caring for God’s Acre and the Diocese of Lichfield is now in its fourth year. As well as all the advice and information available on our website, www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk, Andrea and I are only a phone call away and happy to answer any questions, big or small! Do let us know if you have a monthly parish magazine, Remember that individuals and groups in the diocese and we’d be pleased to arrange for you to receive receive 20% members discount on all CfGA materials. a short article with seasonal nature notes. The Simply use the discount code Lich19. articles provide information about the wildlife in Harriet Carty your churchyard, and encourage parishioners to get Diocesan Churchyard Environmental Advisor involved. [email protected] 01588 673041

Eco Church Churchyards for All Over 50 churches from 21 of our deaneries, as well In November, we are running a workshop on as our Cathedral, have already registered for Eco churchyard accessibility. Meeting in St Giles’, Church, with at least two achieving their bronze Shrewsbury, members of the Shropshire Disability award. This is part of our environmental policy and Network will be helping diocesan officers and action plan, recommended in March by diocesan colleagues think through how our churchyards can synod to all our deaneries. be accessible for all. We plan to publish evidence- Eco Church is a free online survey with supporting based guidance as to best resources to help churches express our care for God’s practice. world in our worship and teaching; in how we look Contact David Primrose after our buildings and land; in how we engage with [email protected] our local community and in global campaigns, and in for further information. the personal lifestyles of our congregations. It’s easy to register, gain credits for all that you are Editors: Dr Ian Dormor, already doing, and identify any additional actions that Trustee and Andrea Gilpin will be straightforward to achieve. Further information is available at www.lichfield.anglican.org/ecochurch. Design: Blast Design Together we can achieve Eco Diocese Bronze by Easter. www.blast-design.co.uk

CfGA is grateful for financial A big thank you to Sara Burnham from St George’s Church in Orleton who support from the following: organised a coffee morning in July which raised £50 for the charity National Lottery Heritage Fund Habitat Aid The Millichope Foundation Thank you to all of our members, with your support we can: Natural Resource Wales • Employ our core staff, Harriet, Andrea and Prue Aviva Community Fund • Run our helpline – answering your calls and queries via phone or e-mail Jean Jackson Trust • Maintain our resources and information including the website AllChurches Trust • Produce this newsletter and maintain the charity • Let people know about burial ground conservation through general publicity and social media Calor Rural Community Fund • Develop new projects and initiatives to support groups managing burial grounds across the country Ecclesiastical Movement for • Support our wonderful Volunteer Team Good Award Please get in touch: Golden Bottle Trust 01588 673041 [email protected] GML Ltd Caring for God’s Acre, 11 Drovers House, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 9BZ Shropshire Hills AONB Charity No: 1155536 Conservation Fund