Churchyard Wildlife - St James's, Gretton

Churchyards and graveyards are important refuges for wildlife while also encapsulating the history of our community. Although some 40% of the UK is covered in grassland, less than 5% of that is 'unimproved', that's to say has not been artificially seeded, ploughed or affected by fertiliser and pesticide use.  Historic church graveyards, like that of St James's, can therefore play a vital role in the conservation of wildlife and of our heritage.  Management for wildlife needs to be balanced with the other values and uses, past a present, of course, and it's worth noting that churchyards of the past were always a mixture of the well tended and the wild.  The Wildlife Trust Churchyard Conservation Awards encourage the management of these spaces for the benefit of all species, including us. St James's churchyard has a Wildlife Trusts Bronze Award, through the Northants Churchyard Conservation Scheme.

CHURCHYARD AT NIGHT EVENT 6-7 JUNE

As part of national 'Love Your Burial Ground Week', we'll be running informal events on the evening of 6th June, from about 8.30 onwards, and at about 10am on Sunday (after the family service starring Gretton's Mini-Choir).  The idea is to do some hands-on natural history in the churchyard.  What we see and record will depend on the weather, and, although we won't go far beyond the church entrance, it's worth wearing clothes and shoes suitable for a bit of grass wandering and in case it turns chilly. 

On Saturday evening we'll have bat detectors, moth traps, camera traps, some footprint tunnels and night binoculars, along with recordings from previous sessions.  We can also listen to the 'dusk chorus' of birds. Although there will be people there from 8.30 onwards, we're not expecting to see/hear many bats until at least 9.00pm, and the moths are unlikely to appear until it starts getting really dark.  So we aim to finish about 10-ish

On Sunday morning we'll look at (and release) what moths we've caught in the light traps, see if we've caught any rodents in the wild mammal traps, see if there are any footprints in the tunnels and review the bat and camera trap recordings. If some of us can get up in time, we might also have some recordings of the dawn chorus.

We'll have lots of handouts on the wildlife in the churchyard, there will be coffee and something to munch on, and hopefully have a good chat on what to do next.  We'll try to be either outside or inside the church proper to avoid upsetting the pipistrelle bats and swallows, both nesting in the porch (mind the poo on the floor!).

All ages very welcome - but for safety reasons, no unaccompanied children please, especially Saturday evening as it will be getting dark and we don't want any accidents...

Have a look at some of the wildlife blogs below (summarised in our 'Wildlife by the month blogs' 2024-2026) to find out about the kind of animals and plants we've seen previously in St James's churchyard.


BLOGS, PLANS AND POSTERS

Latest Monthly Wildlife blogs

We produce regular 'Wildlife by the month' nature notes on what you might see in and around the churchyards. Recent 'blogs' include:

If you'd like to know when the latest blog is released, follow St James's Gretton on Facebook.

Two years of churchyard wildlife: Two years' worth of our  blogs  have been combined into one document : 'Wildlife by the month blogs' 2024-2026. Hard copies of this, along with various brochures, maps and guides, can be found on church noticeboards or just inside the church.

Our surveys and plans:

Posters (that have been up in the church) about:

  • Bats - we have several species of bats flying around the churchyard, along with our own colony of soprano pipstrelles in the porch
  • Wild flowers - Around 100 species of wild flowering plants, grasses and trees have been recorded in the churchyard
  • Moths - a summary from 2023 and list of macromoths identified
  • Some background to our churchyard wildlife.

Useful external websites:

  • Caring for God's Acre - a charity for Protecting Wildlife, Preserving Heritage, Involving People providing information on the history and natural history of church yards
  • Church of England's advice on wildlife in churchyards 
  • Rockingham Forest Vision - connecting local communities to the natural and cultural heritage of Rockingham Forest and raising its local and national profile; connecting the core remaining wooded areas with enriched biodiverse landscapes.