St Firmin’s Churchyard

The churchyard is a place of peace and tranquillity full of wildflowers and birdsong, a wonderful place to just sit and enjoy nature. The grassland is important as an example of what would once have been common in the area and includes some now less common species. We want to make the churchyard a place rich in plant life and wildlife. If you would like to help us in this please do get in touch

Last June we took part in the Count on Nature week, collecting records of wildlife in the churchyard. We are now looking at ways to both protect what is there and create new opportunities for wildlife to thrive. You may notice some changes as we begin to put our plans in place.

We will be leaving 2 areas uncut until the summer so that plants can flower and set seed. This will also benefit insects including pollinators.

We hope that people will come and look out for wildflowers as they appear and other wildlife. We also hope that people will come and help us with practical tasks.

Our work in the churchyard links into proposed Naturehood project covering Thurlby, Baston and Langtoft which we report on further in due course.

You can follow us on St Firmin’s Thurlby Churchyard facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1053399225521014

14th January 2023

Last autumn St Firmin’s was accepted to be part of a nationwide Church of England churchyard carbon assessment.

“Churchyards are uniquely consistent landscapes, little changed with the passing of time, often rich with biodiversity and veteran trees. Being dotted nationally across urban, sub-urban and rural locations, they hold a potentially great impact for the Church of England to respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis.”

This afternoon we made a start with our contribution!!!

Looking around in the churchyard I was really surprised by the plants already showing buds and flowers -Aconite, primrose, snowdrop, red dead nettle and daffodil in bud – sadly we are due for very cold weather next week so they are in for a shock!

A good mornings work!

Another lovely morning for a working party and thanks to everyone we got lots done. Final raking to prepare ground for next year, low branches cut down to allow more light in, flower bed weeded and a start on removing the black plastic out from underneath the east hedge. Mary-Anne baked us a delicious chocolate cake to have with our coffee to celebrate our recent placing at the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards.

Lincolnshire Environmental Awards

On October 8th at a presentation at Whisby Nature Reserve, Lincoln, Thurlby Churchyard were thrilled to be named runners up in the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards to a very well deserved winner, Saxilby Nature Project.

Thurlby Churchyard had been shortlisted from fourteen projects that had applied. In August three judges visited to see the churchyard and discuss our plans to help nature by increasing the wild flowers areas. This work in turn would increase insect life, which is in decline, and which many birds and mammals need to survive.

It was very rewarding to have our work recognised in this way, and an award of £500 will help us to go forward with our plans.

So well done everyone for your hard work, this award is for us all !

Great start to autumn work parties.

A great start to our autumn work parties, thank you to everyone that came and helped. The scarifier worked better than expected to help remove the thick thatch of mulch that was in the grass, lots of raking up to do but a really good start to preparing the grass area for next year. We are extending the area next year that we are going to allow to grow wild – but it still needs management.

The compost area was sorted out with an area to put branches etc that need burning. The last small wild grass area cut and the pollen and herb beds look great after weeding.

A very successful morning. We will post shortly further dates to meet.

PS Thanks Mary-Anne for the delicious biscuits with our coffee.

The grass, which had been allowed to grow has now been scythed, and the ground raked and mown hard – with a grass box. The grasses which had formed a layer over time, due to the grass not being removed when mowing, has been removed and will now, we hope, allow a better display of wild flowers native to this old grassland to appear.