One of the aims of our charity is to preserve the cemetery not only as a place of historical interest but of beauty for the public benefit – a literal ‘garden’ of rest. Since restoration of the neglected and overgrown area began in 2020, we have planted hundreds of plants within graves and within newly created borders. Most of the plants have been donated by volunteers or the local community, but some have been purchased with grant awards from Bradford District East Constituency Council.
We have installed benches for which visitors are encouraged to sit on to enjoy the beauty of nature surrounding them, or, to take a walk around and explore the various areas we have created to encourage biodiversity.
Not only do we have flowers, shrubs and trees and grassed areas, we have a ‘stumpery’, and a ‘fernery’. We have log-stacks, a ‘rock-fall’, rockeries, fox-holes, and hedgehog houses. The Woodland Trust also very kindly donated plants for us to create a natural wildlife hedge (still in its infancy at the current time). Considering the cemetery is only 0.85 acre in size, there is much to discover and enjoy.
Photos by T.Fox and C.Thompson