Where the wild things are …
Like many churches nowadays, ours has a section of churchyard left wild. Why is that? One good really son is that England’s 19,000 parish churchyards, traditionally in each parish called ‘God’s Acre’, are anibgst the very few parts of our country, our parks, gardens and agricultural environments, where pesticides have not been used greatly. This makes them an interesting spot for research right away.
Here in Fletching, the churchyard wild area boasts ssine fabulous wildflowers, butterflies and other insects. These are regularly catalogued and reported on in our Parish Magazine by Nigel Symington. What you may not know is that we have just produced a series of films, working with Nigel Symington, Fletching School and a local filmmaker, Murray Dalgleish, to promote the wild area.
The three short films have showcased the changes that happen over the cycle of the year. The first film was made just after last Easter and focussed on flower development. The second film, at the end of July, focussed on butterflies and other insects. Finally, the third film, made last Autumn, look at the maturing of the year. In addition, there is some fantastic aerial footage of the church and villlage which is wll worth seeing too.
IF you’d like to view these films, you can find them on the school website. Go to Fletching Church of England Primary School, then go to ‘Community’, ‘Community Gardens’ and you’ll see the films.
The films all involved children from Fletching School 9and linked in with the curriculum in interesting ways. As well as contributing to the children’s learning, and promoting the wild area, we are hoping these films will share two messages. The first is to invite us all to consider ‘wilding’ part of our own gardens. Big or small, every garden can benefit from a patch where the plants and the beasts set the tone, rather than us. The second message is to promote the mental health benefits of spending time with nature. Modern healthcare is increasigly aware of the profound health benefits of immersion in the natural world, and ‘green prescribing’ (doctor’s advice to do just that) is becoming increasingly common.
As nature begins to come out in force again this March, I hope you enjoy your own green space, big or little and, if you have time, I hope you’ll also enjoy our beautiful, and partly wild churchyard.
David Knight, Vicar of Fletching