Churchyard Activity Update - Spring 2005

This article is an update on the activities of the Working Group in the past year. The most obvious change is the rather garish garden shed, replacing the one kindly donated about 18 years ago. We trust the colour will mellow with age.

A recent addition is the Display board at the south-west corner of the Hall. The board was donated as a memorial, and was constructed using green English Oak. Initially it contains a temporary display of explanatory notes and photos, but these will be updated and changed on a seasonal basis.

The spring flowers have again put on a brilliant show, but sadly two very rampant native plants - wild garlic and cow parsley - are threatening to swamp the more attractive and less aggressive flowers. Effort will be made during the next year to limit their spread.

Other attractive but ruthless predators are deer and for the last two years all the new shoots on the Memorial Roses and Millenium Yew have been eaten. An experimental plastic mesh barrier has been erected and if it is successful it will be replaced by a more aesthetically pleasing picket fence.

Last year, the Quakers gave up their Sunday morning meetings in St. Lawrence's and they donated a tree to commemorate their decade or so of association with the church. The tree (Acer Griseum - the Paper Bark Maple) was planted during the winter, and as part of the site preparation a general clearance of St. Lawrence Churchyard was initiated. This work will be on-going for some considerable time, alongside the regular maintenance of St. Mary's churchyard.

From "The Beacon", May 2005

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