Welcome to the website of the Holy Trinity Church, Eccleshall , Staffordshire

Churchyard Maintenance
 

The land surrounding the church contains the graves of residents of the town from two centuries and more ago and relatives are no longer around to keep them tidy.

In addition the pavestones need weeding and the many flower beds need careful attention on a weekly basis. Many years ago the Parochial Church Council agreed to find volunteers to maintain the grounds.

An ever changing team of volunteers have been attending to these grounds ever since. The current team is led by Paul Stevenson and wife Kath together with a hard core of regulars.

Paul, bottom left accompanied by a team in July 2011.

My time as a Holy Trinity Church gardener (Part One)

How often had I written in my weekly column in the Stafford Newsletter that Paul Stevenson and his gardening team needed an extra pair of hands and with me working seven days a week I couldn’t help?

The truth is I have not done any gardening for forty years or more and the thought of mowing such a large ‘garden’ , weeding, trimming the gravestones and picking up the grass cuttings was never in my top twenty of things to do when I retired.

Like most people I had often walked through the grounds of the church yard and enjoyed the beautifully kept grass and flower beds making a walk a very pleasant experience. How many brides and wedding parties had enjoyed the look of the grounds as they walked to the ceremony?

On many occasions I had observed the team hard at it on a Saturday morning the sound of petrol driven mowers filling the air and the men and women making sure that the grounds were at their best. Many times the grounds have won awards for the condition of the graveyard. The comfort it must give mourners when they see where their loved ones are laid to rest and the loved ones of many years ago whom perhaps have no one to take care of.

Of course a few people visit the graveyard with their own mowers and shears to take care of a loved one’s grave and it all helps.

Now that I am retired I have the occasional Saturday morning free of commitment, the wife off working at the Railway Building Society and me at a loose end.

I promised Paul that I would give him a morning and so on Saturday 23^rd July I duly arrived at around 9.15am hoping to set a good example with an early arrival, to find the mowers being handed out and the work already under way.

“Anything I can do” I asked Paul, “Something in a supervisory capacity perhaps?” “Have you ever used a mower before” he said. And so I had the joys of mowing explained to me and how to start and use the petrol driven mower.

“Do that part over there by the front wall” he said “And try to avoid scalping”.

The last time I had mowed a lawn it was with a hover mower, I seem to remember it was much easier; after all “it’s a lot less bovver with a hover”.

Mowing one’s own front lawn with little or no obstacles is very much easier than attempting to mow around graves, burial mounds and gravestones as I soon learnt. The depth of the ground varied almost every foot or so and makes setting the depth of the cut an art form, one of which I had yet to master.
 

For information the cut that I did is by the entrance to the church yard nearest the parish room. Whilst I am left alone to get on with it the remaining members of the team fan out across the grounds doing what they do; looking after the flower beds, mowing, removing rotten old trees and other garden maintenance things.

Within minutes I felt the damp of perspiration on my brow and in the hair on my neck. Undeterred I continued, scalping occasionally and creating strange circular patterns in the grass when I turned the mower without lifting the cutting edge from the ground.

The ground near the wall is potholed and mostly uneven causing the mower to struggle and miss cutting some of the grass. Problems which I am sure my fellow gardeners have discovered and remedied it.

Within 45 minutes I had managed to cut (or scalp) most of my allotted area and began to feel like something of an old hand at this mowing game. The mower I had been allocated did not have a collecting basket attached to it so that the grass cutting lay where they fell. My father always told me never to leave grass cuttings because they go brown and make the place look untidy. It was at this point that Ron Biggs arrived with his rake – a good man to have on your side in the battle for well manicured grass.

My plans to spend the morning working with the team suffered a setback when I felt my heart pumping a little harder than usual – not something that I was used to but being 64, overweight and unfit I decided that the better part of valour was to admit defeat and stop at that point. And I was the youngest member of the team.

As luck would have it that was the time when head gardener Paul arrived with the coffee and biscuits. As anyone who knows me will tell you I will do many things for a coffee and biscuits.

I was first in the queue for a mug of steaming coffee and a chocolate biscuit, Paul in the meantime went off to call the other members of the team in for their refreshment. I suggested that he should use a whistle or a horn but he preferred the personal touch of walking to each member and inviting them to coffee. Many of them seemed reluctant to pause and it was only with some persuasion that they gathered for coffee. The picture was taken around this time.

I managed to devote one hour of my time to mowing whilst the team carry out the maintenance every fortnight. But I will be back – just as soon as the blisters go.

Could you give an hour to keeping the grounds of our beautiful church looking good all the time? Please get in touch with Paul and let him know how you can help 851069.

p.s. I took the photos so that is the reason that I am not in the team photograph!