Ecological summary

Burial grounds are fantastic places for biodiversity, often containing species rich grassland which was once widespread in the UK. The walls and monuments create habitat for amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and invertebrates as well as ferns, mosses and liverworts. Of the 2,000 lichen species in the UK, 700 are found in churchyards with a third of these rarely found elsewhere. Check for thrushes feeding on yew berries and swifts and bats under the eaves.

Caring for God's Acre is a national charity dedicated to supporting those managing burial grounds for conservation and heritage purposes. More information on the support offered can be found on their website here: https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk. To view the occurrence records in this burial ground click on the View records button underneath the map.

Ancient & Veteran Trees

The UK holds a globally important population of veteran and ancient yew trees of which three-quarters are found in the churchyards of England and Wales. There are about 800 of these ancient and veteran yews, aged from 500 to several 1,000 years old, with no known upper age limit. Burial grounds may contain veteran trees of other species.

Burial grounds may also contain veteran trees of other species, acting as hosts to a wealth of associated plants, animals, lichen and fungi.

Bats and Swifts

Bats – Bats use both the buildings and also the mature and veteran trees within burial grounds to roost, breed and overwinter. These places are relatively unchanging and so populations may have built up over centuries. In addition, bats may forage and feed over the grassland and other vegetation, taking advantage of the wide variety of insect species to be found.

Swifts – The eaves, roofs, towers and steeples of historic churches and chapels, combined with the space around them for accessing nooks and crannies make burial grounds excellent for nesting swifts. These buildings are relatively unchanging and so populations may have built up over centuries. Nests are hard to find and so surveying is crucial for good management.

[counting] species

This map contains both point- and grid-based occurrences at different resolutions

Datasets

datasets have provided data to the NBN Atlas Beautiful Burial Grounds for this place.

Browse the list of datasets and find organisations you can join if you are interested in participating in a survey for this place.

Other Heritage Information

Group Species

[counting] species

This map contains both point- and grid-based occurrences at different resolutions

Showing 1 - 19 of 19 results
Taxa No. of records Most recent record
Acarospora fuscata 1 1994
Apus apus (Swift) 1 2020
Arabis caucasica (Garden Arabis) 1 2023
Caloplaca flavescens 1 1994
Caloplaca flavocitrina 1 1994
Caloplaca saxicola 1 1994
Candelariella vitellina f. vitellina 1 1994
Cladonia fimbriata 1 1994
Lecanora conizaeoides f. conizaeoides 1 1994
Myriolecis dispersa 1 1994
Parmelia saxatilis s. lat. 1 1994
Parmelia sulcata (Netted Shield Lichen) 1 1994
Parmotrema perlatum 1 1994
Physcia adscendens 1 1994
Physcia caesia 1 1994
Pseudevernia furfuracea var. furfuracea 1 1994
Psilolechia leprosa 1 1994
Verrucaria nigrescens 1 1994
Xanthoria parietina (Common Orange Lichen) 1 1994
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Charts showing breakdown of occurrence records ([counting] records)

Data sets Licence Records