A SANCTUARY FOR WILDLIFE

The graveyard is tended with extraordinary care by our dedicated volunteer gardening team, who work with deep respect for the site as a place of memory and rest. Their approach is to hold a delicate balance: keeping the ground welcoming for human visitors while allowing it to remain a sanctuary for plants, animals, and birds. It is both wild and gently tended—a balance that feels just right.

Their quiet, thoughtful work has created a space where life flourishes. Mature sycamore, rowan, holly, and birch trees stand alongside a changing display of wildflowers, including the bright orange “fox-and-cubs.” Mosses, fungi, and lichens thrive, while bilberries—and rarer cowberries—cover the sloping ground to the east.

The graveyard hums with wildlife. Birds such as dunnocks, mistle thrushes, fieldfares, willow warblers, finches, and even a pair of tawny owls make their homes here. Buzzards and sparrowhawks circle overhead, while roe deer wander quietly among the graves.

Thanks to the gardeners’ care and love, the graveyard is a place where reverence for the dead sits alongside the vibrancy of the living world—a sanctuary in every sense