Members of St Nicholas Church in Warndon, Worcester have been involved in a project to increase the biodiversity in their churchyard. They successfully applied for a grant from Natural Networks which has enabled them to plant a total of 712 plants and install six birdboxes and two mini ponds.
The project has been led by PCC member Pete Vickery who found out about the Natural Networks grants after arranging for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust (WWT) to run a ‘bat evening’ at the church.
He said: “I am part of a small group working on our Eco Church Award and we knew we needed to involve the community more, so asked WWT to come and talk to us about the bats in our churchyard. They then told us about grants to improve local habitats for wildlife which are facilitated by Worcestershire City Council and funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”
The first stage of applying for the grant was to invite a Natural Networks Officer from WWT to undertake a survey of the site and produce a Biodiversity Enhancement Assessment report. This highlighted all the different things which could be done in the churchyard to improve the church’s biodiversity.
“We took this report to the PCC to decide which elements to take forward. There was no pressure to do everything on the report and for us it was a balance between improving the churchyard for wildlife and having a manageable project which didn’t impact the services which we sometimes hold outside. We also involved the Church Buildings Team at the Diocesan Office who advised us on what we needed to get permission for and were pleased to discover that most of our plans were covered by List B permissions.”
The church then costed the project to apply for the grant, which needs to be done before any costs are incurred.
Becca Bratt, Natural Networks Officer at the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, has been helping with the planting. She said: “Our initial survey of the churchyard is completely free! Churches can apply for up to 70% of the overall cost of their project, with a minimum grant of £1,000. We can help with lots of advice at WWT and the resulting increase in biodiversity has benefits to people as well as wildlife, for example through Carbon capture or helping with flood alleviation.”
St Nicholas Church had their grant of £1,436 (of a total spend of just over £2k) approved at the end of May this year. They have removed a metal fence in the churchyard, replacing it with 220 native hedge whips, have planted up banks with ferns and woodland plants, planted moth-friendly plants, used old sinks to create two mini ponds, put in bird boxes and planted 260 snowdrop and bluebell bulbs!
Pete said: “It’s been a lot of work, but definitely worth it and we’ve had a lot of support from both WWT and Worcestershire Council, who have also sent volunteers to help us with the planting. We have had four or five planting days alongside churchyard care mornings on the weekends with a number of people from the congregation helping out. At the end of November we were able to collect all the evidence of what we had done to be able to recoup the grant amount. We really see this as part of our discipleship as we work towards our Silver Eco Church award.”
Vicar at St Nicholas, Diane Cooksey, said: “I am grateful to Pete who has worked incredibly hard on this project liaising with WWT and the Council to bring it to fruition. He clearly has a passion for working to protect the natural environment and his energy and enthusiasm have shone through in all that he has done. We are looking forward to the Spring to see the bulbs begin to flower and in due course to watching the hedge grow and become a habitat for various wildlife.”
The Natural Networks programme currently has funded until March 2025 and it is hoped it will be renewed after this point. Find out more on the Worcestershire County Council website.
