Bringing a Wareham graveyard back to life!
By Karen Naylor
Using the skills, enthusiasm and imagination of our community, Sustainable Wareham want to transform the graveyard behind Wareham United Reformed Church (opposite Sainsbury’s) into a space that is respectful to those who are buried there, a haven for wildlife and a place where our community can enjoy a gentle stroll or some quiet contemplation over lunch.
We’re thrilled that Wareham Town Council have awarded us a generous grant of £500 to form a project team of local volunteers to restore this graveyard.
Aims of the graveyard project
In line with Sustainable Wareham’s aims to improve green spaces and support nature locally, we think that this project will involve all / some of the following:
• Surveying the site to map buildings, walls, sheds, gravestones, presence of wildlife, location & condition of existing trees and shrubs
• Coming up with garden designs that are respectful to the dead, good for wildlife, great for the community.
• Clearing overgrown areas to expose gravestones & pruning shrubbery
• Demolition of existing unwanted structures
• Building /installing new structures eg raised beds, seats, depending on the group’s design
• Decoration eg painting of any new or existing structures
• Planting of any new shrubs, plants, seeds, bulbs
• Genealogy (mapping the position of graves, occupants etc & researching links to living relatives etc
• History – telling the Graveyard’s story eg signs with QR codes etc
• Sustainability: maintaining the revived Graveyard once the project ends
At the moment as the pictures show, the area (which has over 100 graves!) is totally overgrown! Part of the project team will start by mapping the “as is” position of flora, fauna and the few visible graves, whilst another team will begin to consider possible designs and a third will be looking at historical /genealogical records. Later on, we will get our hands dirty!
Volunteers welcome!
Do join us – we’d love it if you want to come and get some mud under those nails and help the community create a beautiful, restful space for nature and people in the heart of our town!
To find out more or to join our project, contact Karen at :
info@sustainablewareham.org
