St. GILES CHURCHYARD - TREES AND HEDGE

The churchyard was extended to its present size in 1995, with a new hedge layed down to separate the graveyard from the open common land beyond. The new area started to be used for digging graves in 2005.

The churchyard requires maintenance from time to time, and this page describes two significant projects that took place at the beginning of 2014: one planned and one not.  The team of churchyard volunteers carried out all of the work that did not rerquire specialists.

Photos by Nick Reynolds and John Tinham, click to enlarge

Fallen Trees

On Boxing Day 2013 a large pine tree came down in the churchyard during  high winds.

The team cleared away the small branches during January, in readiness for professional tree surgeons to come in and cut up the main trunk for disposal.  Luckily only a very small number of grave monuments were disturbed.

 They also felled a second tree on the churchyard boundary that was clearly dead.

Layering the Hedge

Then, also in January,  the boundary hedge between the churchyard and church field was given a makeover. The hedge had grown considerably, and needed much more attention than the working team could give it. Therefore, it was suggested having it layered. This is a tradition which has been dying out, due to modern mechanical hedge cutting these days.

A suitable craftsman by the name of Alan Ashby was engaged to do the work, which took place in January. The Tuesday working team cleared and burned all the surplus cuttings he produced. The hedge was completely transformed, and once it started to shoot and fill in, it looked even better than before.

The cost of this operation was kindly donated by Paul Rason, in memory of his wife Denise who died in 2012, and who’s grave is next to the hedge. Paul and his son have said they will help the working team maintain the hedge.

Richard Healey