Over the last weeks, the Cherishing Sidmouth’s Cemeteries social media pages have been looking at how other cemeteries have been dealing with invasive long grass – some more successfully than others:
Managed sensitively, this lovely old meadow grassland can enhance the burial site for visitors, as well as for wildlife, making it a more peaceful and beautiful place for quiet reflection and remembrance… Conservation management in burial grounds is about active management, not neglect. It is very important to draw up a management brief that is appropriate for your site, realistic for your resources and welcomed by your community. St Andrew’s Churchyard, Norton Grassland Management Brief 2019
A historic site like Ampney St Mary would have historic grassland full of interest already. So an initial area for long grass was agreed within the PCC and Pam designed the shape of the area so that it would look managed and intentional. Part of the area will be managed as wildflower meadow and part as tussocky grass. These areas were marked out with wooden pegs to make it clear where to mow. Starting To Manage For Long Grass And Introducing Yellow Rattle – Caring For God’s Acre – the conservation charity for burial grounds across the UK
BCP COUNCIL has allowed grass to grow in cemeteries as part of an initiative despite concerns that it is ‘disrespectful’… Despite the public, several of whom have family buried in the cemeteries, being unable to visit family due to the long grass, the council stated the grass ‘adds to the tranquility’ of the cemeteries. BCP leave grass long in cemeteries despite upset families | Bournemouth Echo
Ultimately, it’s about sensitive, balanced management:
“People say it’s just the council being lazy and just giving up, but that’s not the case: we need to look at this very carefully.” [East Devon councillor Ian Barlow] Councils managing their grass-cutting regimes – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Because the policy of ‘rewilding’ has come to mean ‘neglect’ – as this piece from four years ago showed:
Cllr Jenny Ware said she was ‘all for ecology’, but questioned whether EDDC, which is responsible for managing the cemetery, was using current concerns about the environment as an excuse to avoid spending public money maintaining it… The chair of Sidmouth Town Council’s environment committee, Denise Bickley, had contributed to EDDC’s ‘rewilding’ plans, and acknowledged that the management of cemeteries is ‘an emotive subject with no simple answer at the moment’. Is it right to allow the ‘rewilding’ of East Devon’s cemeteries? | Sidmouth Herald
It is hoped, then, that the Cherishing Sidmouth’s Cemeteries project will bring about responsible management regimes for these much-cherished areas. As an earlier piece pointed out: High grass does not equate to high biodiversity – Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries
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