Churchyard Management and Biodiversity plan

St Hilda’s Church, Lucker has recently become an Eco-Church and received a Bronze award we are now working towards a Silver award .Spring and Summer Nature Notes – 2023 and 2024

from St Hilda’s Church, Lucker

Churchyard Biodiversity Action Plan

St Hilda’s Church is preparing a churchyard management and biodiversity action plan that aims to turn the churchyard and adjacent land owned by the Church into an environmental asset that provides benefits for the local community and the wider benefice. We’re very lucky to have a beautiful little church in a stunning setting with lots of varied landscape and ecological habitats surrounding it.

The southern fringe of the churchyard is bordered by the Waren Burn that provides a river corridor that is alive with wild garlic in spring. In summer the grassy bank on the church side is full of cow parsley, red campion and greater willowherb. On a recent visit the corridor was echoing with the calls of blackcaps, a summer visitor setting up home in the woodland thickets along the burn.

Wild garlic Blackcap

Part of the churchyard has a small woodland thicket in which ancient gravestones peep up amongst the ivy. In late winter/early spring part of the woodland is carpeted by snowdrops to be soon followed by pockets of wild garlic, bluebells and the occasional primrose amongst the thick ivy. Wood violets have spread onto the nearby gravel paths.

Primrose amongst the ivy Wood Violet

We have established the start of a wild meadow on part of the grassland by the river and here we planted some yellow rattle and ox-eye daisy. By not mowing this area some attractive flowers have already started to spring up including bugle, bush vetch, and common sorrel.

Yellow rattle Bugle Common sorrel

We have also planted a small cornflower meadow border which is now full of flower and attracting a lot of pollinators including butterflies and bumble bees.

Cornflower meadow border

This is only the start of our action plan and we are keen for more of the community to join in and offer ideas for how we can boost biodiversity and turn the churchyard into a haven for wildlife which all can enjoy.

With this in mind we held an Open Day on Sunday 13th August 2023 where all were invited to visit the church, take a look at some of the early ideas that have emerged and explore the church and churchyard to find out and discover what is currently planned and contribute any new ideas for development. The feedback was very encouraging and there were lots of ideas shared for how the churchyard and church land could be developed in the future to the benefit of the local community, local schools and visitors to Lucker.