On Snowdrop Sunday 5 Feb 2023, Bishop Karen launched the start of the Living Churchyard Project at St.Mary’s Church in Piddlehinton. The aim of the project us to encourage more wildlife into the churchyard, and create more opportunities for community involvement. The churchyard has been well maintained over the years and contains beautiful displays of flowers throughout the year including snowdrops, primroses, bluebells and cherry blossom. It provides a peaceful space for everyone to enjoy. Building on this, we aim to increase the number of wildflowers and also encourage more wildlife such as birds, bats, butterflies and other animals to take up residence. As the project gains momentum, we are hoping to get more of the community involved. There will be activities such as building bird and bat boxes and bug hotels where you can join in. As well as the opportunity to get involved in recording wildlife throughout the year. There will be both formal events such as moth trapping and bird watching, but we’d like to collect all informal observations throughout the year; there’s a sheet in the Church porch to note down any plants and animals you may see when visiting – all records welcome. Please do come and have a look around.

There will be regular updates on the church noticeboards, village WhatsApp group as well as on this site. Plus, we now have a dedicated Living Churchyard blog.

If you’d like to get involved or have some ideas, please email Helen at piddlehintonlivingchurchyard@gmail.com

The project is sponsored by Dorset Wildlife Trust.