Wild@AllSaints

Who we are

We are a group of volunteers from the church & village community who are keen to make the churchyard more wildlife-friendly & of course we enjoy a bit of gardening too. We’ve also had lots of support and inspiration from our local Wildlife Trust, A Rocha and Eco Church. Please do contact us if you’d like to know more about our project as we welcome regular & occasional help, especially in the growing season!

What we do

We are keen to help our small patch of churchyard be a part of something bigger and better at caring for creation, making our area friendlier for the wonderful wildlife around us and for our community to enjoy. 

In the last year or so, we’ve been developing and extending areas of wildflowers and long grass, planting a wide variety of flowering plants around graves and other areas so we've turned the bare, weed-killed earth around the graves into mini flower beds to support pollinators and other insects.

We've planted native plants and shrubs to provide food for birds and caterpillars and non-native plants to extend the flowering season to last from Spring to Autumn.

Time and place

We meet monthly to work in the churchyard as a group on the first Sunday of the month usually at around 11am, after the morning service. In the summer we usually arrange a few evening meet-ups too. Many of the group members also work individually in the churchyard at a time that suits them. We also hold occasional planning meetings in one of the village pubs or at the home of a group member.

All Saints churchyard

7 High Street

Earls Barton

Northampton

NN6 0JG

Further information

We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all the lovely flowers around the churchyard as much as we have! We’ve had many positive comments from the community and visitors. We’ve spotted toads, adult and baby hedgehogs, squirrels a plenty, a huge variety of birds including goldcrests (UK’s tiniest bird). We’re also delighted that so many nesting boxes are regularly used by different species of birds.

We have attained the Silver Award in the Wildlife Trust’s churchyard scheme, (of which Bishop Donald of the Peterborough Diocese is the patron). We hope to keep to that award standard or maybe even go for gold!

We also run ‘Wildlife Activity Afternoons’ giving families and indeed all ages, a fun opportunity to find out more about what we’re doing plus lots of hands-on activities and delicious refreshments to enjoy.

We’re delighted that we now have a ‘JaM’ garden in the churchyard so our children and young people can enjoy developing their own special growing area which has been met with a lot of enthusiasm and admiration!

Contact details

Please do contact us if you’d like to know more about our project as we always welcome regular and occasional help, especially in the growing season!