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William Street Community Garden based at All Saints Church, Kettering has been awarded silver in the Northamptonshire Churchyard Conservation Award Scheme 2024.
After reading about the award scheme on the Diocesan website, the community garden entered hoping for bronze but were delighted to bypass bronze and come straight out with a silver.
The William Street Community Garden in Kettering originally started during the Covid-19 periods of lockdown, when local residents, stuck at home, rediscovered their community and made friends with their neighbours. After taking their idea to the PCC of All Saints Church, the residents set about building a community garden in the churchyard to grow organic vegetables, join in the joy of growing, benefit from the therapeutic powers of gardening and improve their well-being.
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Starting a dead hedge |
Increasing the levels of wildlife in the garden has been a main objective and this is being done by building and encouraging natural habitats so a wide range of animals, birds and insects can also enjoy the garden. Throughout 2024 workshops have been held to cook, preserve and enjoy the food grown and make the most of what nature provides.
Angela Brett, Churchwarden at All Saints said “our churchyard is amazing as it has gone from a partly neglected garden where we really couldn’t afford to pay for gardeners to come and cut the grass, to a happy community who love God’s earth. We would encourage any church, however big or small their church yard, to take part. We didn’t think we could enter as we have no gravestones in our garden but to our amazement we entered and gained the silver award.”
Since 1983 the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants have run a Conservation Churchyard Award scheme in the county. Any churchyard can request an advisory visit where information will be provided on how best to encourage wildlife in their churchyards. They can then go on to work towards the different award levels. If you're feeling inspired, you can find out more here.
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Pumpkin crop |
