15/08/26 - Ellerton Churchyard

It’s that time of year when our team have once again been working hard to help Ellerton Church Preservation Trust undertake the annual hay cut of the churchyard, with the aim of improving the diversity of wildflowers and spreading the benefits of the Ings hay meadows outside of the boundary 🌿🪻

As another growing season is over, we are pleased to say that the management of the churchyard is working as intended, with increasing amounts of Yellow Rattle and Greater Burnet, as well as many other herbs and finer grasses, along with other typical ‘Ings’ species that are now found in increasing numbers amongst the headstones. Whilst in recent years the churchyard has been looking more welcoming and awash with colour during the summer months, it is also now more resilient in the drought compared with many other areas of mown/drought-stricken grasslands, and so it's worth a mention and reminder of how our churchyards and gardens are incredibly important in providing valuable habitat for the local wildlife if managed correctly 🚜

Each year after our team have cut the meadow, it is then turned before being dried and made into bales by Rosewood Farms – helping both biodiversity of the site and the local farming community in producing feed for livestock. If you haven’t yet visited this area of the Lower Derwent Valley it’s somewhere worth calling on your next visit – set right next to the Ings the church overlooks the winter floods and is rather a special place in the local landscape – complete with its breeding Barn Owls who also feature in a specially made stained-glass window within the church, which details some of the history and wildlife of the Ings 🦉🪟

As always, it’s been yet another fantastic effort by our team, enabling the ongoing management of the churchyard and helping to make more places better for wildlife and people in our local area, and helping nature to recover and spill out from the core of the valley – huge thank you to our brilliant team for their efforts 👏