CSC Working Party: 3rd April 2025

This week there is a very full and detailed report of what the Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries working party have been doing at Sidmouth Cemetery – as put together by volunteer member Tim O’Carroll, as well as his illustrative photos:

For the third week in a row several people continued with raking the last of the remaining grass from the winter cut , filling 2 dumpy bags. Some of the grass has also gone on the recently created compost heaps. 

Another group tackled the highly invasive Three Cornered Leek before it has chance to set seed and spread further filling a further 4 bags. 

The remaining group tackled the garden waste fly tipping. 

It looks as though sometime before we started CSC, someone left a small wood pile in the wilder area for the benefit of wildlife. Unfortunately someone has seen fit to dump their garden waste (with a few additions) on the edge of this pile. Today we have sifted through the pile and filled 4 large sacks with garden waste that clearly hasn’t come from the cemetery.

I say sifted because in amongst the garden waste was bonfire ash, screws, electric plug, ceiling light pull cord, curtain hooks, raw-plugs etc. We will now look at relocating any wildlife friendly wood pile to a less obvious site where it hopefully won’t be added to again. 

What is nice is that it feels like Spring has arrived. As well as the Blackthorn blossom we have been cheered by the site of Lesser Celandine and Primrose. Last week we found an adult slow worm and later a young one waiting to warm up in the sun. Also encountered have been Peacock and Speckled Wood Butterflies, Oil beetles and a Bumblebee Bee nest. It is also good to hear all the birds calling and singing. It’s not unusual to hear a dozen different species. Hopefully as the season moves on even more people will start to view the cemetery as a place to be valued.

With thanks to Tim!

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