The churchyard is one
of the most enduring features of the British landscape. The
20,000 churchyards in England and Wales span every possible habitat from sea
shore and rocky coastline to grass and heathland, moor and deep wood. Over many
centuries these churchyards have established themselves as unofficial nature
reserves where an abundance and diversity of indigenous and naturalized wildlife
flourishes undisturbed. From over-intensive farming, and industrial and metropolitan
encroachment, churchyards have provided a sanctuary for all kinds of flowering
plants, shrubs and rare species of ferns, mosses, lichens and fungi. These in their
turn support an extraordinary variety and density of animal life –gravestone insects,
frogs, toads, shrews and mice. The larger creatures of the countryside, the owls,
badgers and deer, have all found a refuge within these ancient enclosures, and
despite erosive urbanization, the rare marbled white, adonis blue, and silver studded
blue butterflies still eke out a precarious existence in them.
