God's Acre

I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
The burial-ground God's-Acre! It is just;
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust.

God's Acre HW LONGFELLOW

I do have a soft spot for English country churches and churchyards, and I've dallied in many of these on my pilgrimage along the Viking Way. Below is the church of St Nicholas at Carlton Scroop. I met a feisty lady hacking at ivy in the graveyard, and we passed the time of day.

She told me about the God's Acre projects all over Britain, which treat churchyards as conservation areas, protecting their unique heritage, and encouraging and preserving their wildlife. She showed me the apertures in the recently restored roof allowing bats access to their roosts. And she led me round her proudly managed plot, this divine yet earthly acre of wild grasses and sweet-smelling herbs, this small portion of paradise.

Dodging mossed headstones and lichened urns, she pointed out a biodiversity of wildflowers, and recited a litany of names: knapweed, teasel, yarrow, scabious, wild carrot, goat's beard, lady's bedstraw ...    

After Carlton Scroop I trod the margins of yet more cornfields fringed with bindweed and poppies ...

... until I came to another, even more impressive God's Acre surrounding St Swithun's church in Long Bennington ...

Here were horse chestnuts and ancient yews, big swathes of feverfew and marjoram, blue stands of viper's bugloss, lush carpets of yellow archangel, golden clumps of medicinal St John's wort.

Some of our most colourful butterflies depend on the humble nettle for the growth of their larvae: the Comma, the Red Admiral, the Small Tortoiseshell ...

... and the Peacock ...

Let's all cultivate a nettle patch in our gardens and help preserve these beautiful, transient creatures ...