On All Hallows’ Eve thoughts turn to churchyards, graves and creatures of the dark.
And the season of bats and owls, lengthening nights and lichen-covered tombstones is the perfect time to celebrate all the life within our churchyards.
“Our churchyards are places for the living, not just the dead,” said the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, the Church of England lead bishop for the environment.
Churchyards across Norfolk and Waveney are home to a huge variety of wildlife – including threatened species of plants and animals.
Speaking ahead of a debate about biodiversity at the General Synod of the Church of England earlier this year, Bishop Graham called for churchyards to include areas where nature and wildlife could thrive.
“We want to play our part in restoring the biodiversity that has tragically been lost,” he said, adding that the natural world can also bring solace to people in times of grief.
Owls and eight species of bat, fly over the lovely churchyard at Hethel, near Wymondham. Sometimes known as ghost owls or church owls, barn owls glide ghost-white and their calls are eerie shrieks. Hethel churchyard is managed for wildlife, with a single summer mow making it a sanctuary for wildflowers including cowslips, goat’s-beard, sorrel, lady’s bedstraw and, in June and July, pyramidal orchids.
Bats fly over the churchyard at Wiveton, near Blakeney, too. It has been managed for biodiversity for the past decade. Rare wildflowers thrive and provide food and habitat for butterflies and other insects, and pipistrelle bats. Its gravestones and walls are also a haven for lichen.
Fungi and lichen are part of the wildlife wonders at Hemblington churchyard near South Walsham. Part of the churchyard is an ancient hay meadow, rich with plants which might have flowered here for more than a thousand years. Volunteers look after the churchyard and have recorded more than 200 species of plants and animals. The 14 fungi it harbours include the bleeding oak crust, stump puffball, glistening inkcap, brown parasol, and fairy ring champignon. It is classified as a lichen haven by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, which says the stonework of Norfolk churches and churchyards is an important habitat for scarce ferns and mosses and about 250 species of lichen. Three quarters of Norfolk’s wonderfully-named black spleenwort ferns are found on churchyard stonework and some rare lichens are only found in churchyards. At Holt, a local lichen expert found 53 species of lichen in St Andrew’s churchyard.
Nocturnal animals haunt the churchyard at Bradwell, near Great Yarmouth, volunteers manage the churchyard to encourage as much wildlife as possible and have been rewarded with sightings of a badgers and hedgehogs visiting at night. They have also seen slow worms, grass snakes, a sparrowhawk, rooks, and a mother and fawn muntjac deer.
Yew trees often tower over the graves in country churchyards. Many date back hundreds of years, some are a thousand years old or more. Although almost all parts of yew trees are poisonous its wood was prized for making bows for thousands of years. Yews live so long they once symbolised immortality. Ancient druids believed they were sacred and early Christian churches were established beside the yew groves where people already gathered to worship.
Find out more about Norfolk and Waveney’s churchyard wildlife sanctuaries here.