What does it take to look after three acres of rural churchyard? The Parish of Dibden relies on volunteers, shared expertise and a lot of heart – and the next generation is getting involved too!
Several times a year, parishioners gather at All Saints’ Church in Dibden on a Saturday to wrestle with brambles, dig out weeds, trim the hedges and conserve vegetation. This year, two young lads joined the team for a work party and proved really useful.
Team Leader Alison Alcock said, “As we’re all getting on a bit, having Alfie and Tyler with us was a great help, and they were great at clearing bracken from the centre of the churchyard, using their initiative to remove it to our disposal area as speedily as possible. Their hard work helped us achieve far more than I
expected.
“Several of us have bits that we tackle regularly, with Adrian hedging and ditching, Nick and Cecily caring for the sunken garden, Steve and Ros sorting our compost bins, and removing noncompostable materials such as plant pots and flower wrappers and, from time to time, managing the disposal of items we do not want on our compost heaps, such as bramble. Phil, Viv and Mike care for the areas closest to the church building.
“Without this voluntary support, we would not be able to maintain a diverse but peaceful churchyard for our visitors.”
The churchyard has areas designated as SINC (Site of Interest for Nature Conservation), which means that mowing the grass is not straightforward. The Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre has identified All Saints’ Churchyard as a haven for over 100 species of plants, along with many birds, pollinators, insects and other wildlife. To protect this biodiversity, some areas are left to grow wild for periods of time, before being cut in spring and again in early August.
The church also use professional gardeners and landscapers when required, particularly for a Pathways Project in their Garden of Remembrance which will cost £20,000. Fundraising for this is ongoing.
