Biodiversity in Ascension Parish Burial Ground

To protect and enhance the biodiversity of a designated City Wildlife Site, make it easier to visit and to appreciate, and improve the health and well-being of local people and volunteers.

The project is designed to better protect and enhance the burial ground’s delicate habitat, improve people’s enjoyment and access to this environment, and support volunteers who help maintain the burial ground. The measures under this project to include:

i) Small pond to protect species which suffer during droughts (eg frogs, toads, dragonflies and Brown and White Lipped Snails),

ii) Woodcrete bird boxes to provide for a wider variety of bird species

iii) Paved area in front of soon to be erected notice boards (map of site and guide to species and graves)

iv) Sheffield hoop bicycle stands suitable for standard and off gauge cargo bikes

v) Lazy Dog LD001 HA4SS tool with general purpose grubbing tool (No1B) and large dock fork (No8) to tackle areas of inaccessible bramble

vi) Fit dowels to hazardous gravestones to protect volunteers and visitors     

The burial ground has been a designated City Wildlife Site since 1998.

The prime object of the Friends is to ‘protect and enhance the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground for the public benefit as a place of remembrance, spirituality, history, and nature.’ It is an unusual site on calcareous soil suitable for a variety of flora and trees, and the wildlife these attract. Graves here include some for the world-famous and many for those who are known and still visited by local residents. Although accessible from Huntingdon Road it is still little visited and we would like to make it easier to find and to appreciate.

This object recognises the contributions it makes towards:

- the health and wellbeing of local people,

- the social integration and cohesion between volunteers many of whom are socially isolated and have limited opportunities for purposeful and physical activities,

- the protection and enhancement for existing biodiversity which includes 145 trees, 58 species of lichen, 16 species of butterfly, 57 species of moth and 4 of dragonflies.

The project is being submitted by the Friends to the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground.

The Friends organise and supervise frequent volunteer maintenance working parties. They have a Wildlife Trust Bronze Award for Conservation of Church Yards in recognition of building their capacities to develop the skills, knowledge and working practices of working party participants in the protection and enhancement of the burial ground habitat and recording of plants, trees, insects, invertebrates, mammals, and birds.

The Friends liaise with the City Council’s maintenance team to plan mowing and raking regimes to enhance habitat.

The application is supported by City Councillors Antoinette Nestor and Simon Smith and County Councillor Cathie Rae.