God’s own gardens: why churchyards are some of our wildest nature sites
By Alexander Turner
The Guardian
May 6, 2022
Peaceful, unpolluted and often left untouched for centuries, a growing green church movement is helping these havens of biodiversity thrive.
They are in nearly every village, town and city across the UK, thousands of church buildings peppering the landscape. But while many may no longer be in regular use, the churchyards surrounding them – quiet, peaceful and often ancient – amount to what Olivia Graham, the bishop of Reading, equates to “a small national park”. The land beyond the church gate is some of the most biodiverse in the UK because it has largely stayed untouched.