There are some great, inspiring resources available online for any aspiring project cherishing its local cemeteries.
As the Caring For God’s Acre website points out, there are over 25,000 burial grounds across the UK, ranging from small rural medieval churchyards to large Victorian city cemeteries, spanning different cultures, religions and centuries – and Sidmouth Cemetery is one of these many Victorian urban cemeteries – small compared to many but a large area for at town this size.
The Caring For God’s Acre site also says, appealing to many who are interested in local history and the natural world, burial grounds encapsulate the history of communities whilst offering refuge for our native wildlife. Indeed, the strapline for the conservation charity for burial grounds across the UK points out that these places are very much about Protecting Wildlife, Preserving Heritage, Involving People.
And that’s very much what the Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries project is all about – both looking after the site’s rich heritage and enhancing its biodiversity – with at the centre its people, from volunteers and professionals to locals and visitors.
Again, the call from Caring For God’s Acre “Let’s keep burial grounds beautiful, accessible and connected to their communities” could be considered a rallying cry from the Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries project.
Their website has lots of useful sections and links which in turn reflect much of the activity of the Sidmouth project:
Our Digital Ancestors aims are to work with community groups across England to record, celebrate and safeguard burial ground heritage, particularly the memorials. In parallel, the CSC graves and links to records pages show the work of its volunteers in unearthing, sometimes literally, the heritage of Sidmouth Cemetery, whilst the project also hopes to work with the council’s new online record of graves for Sidmouth and Sidbury Cemeteries.
The Caring For God’s Acre Find a Flowery Burial Ground project and map includes the fabulous All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh. Meanwhile, the CSC project is doing its bit to manage its wild flowers, for example with sowing ragwort in Sidmouth Cemetery – as part of its work with the council in managing the Cemetery’s grass for wild flowers and insects.
There’s much more to explore at the Caring For God’s Acre website and their Facebook pages, which are regularly reposted at the Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries – as we try to appreciate and care for our cemeteries.
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