Two dozen volunteers answered a plea to turn up and help tidy up extensive and overgrown graveyard areas at St John’s Church in Keswick.
The Rev Charles Hope made the appeal in a letter he wrote to The Keswick Reminder in response to complaints about what was perceived as the unkempt nature of the church grounds.
Those who turned out and rolled up their sleeves were from the local community as well as the church congregation. They gathered with an array of tools to rake up the mown grass and rubble sacks. A refreshments team provided them with welcome teas, coffees and a liberal supply of biscuits, mid-morning.
“The grass had been strimmed a couple of days earlier, so for a couple of hours, the scenes right across the churchyard resembled old photos of hay making from 100 years ago,” said Nicki Baker, one of the volunteers. “It was amazing how much was achieved in two hours’ hard work, in a cheery and willing atmosphere.”
In his letter Mr Hope said the church would be taking external independent advice about churchyard grass cutting management. He said diverse comments and ideas about the management of the churchyard would also be considered with the aim of coming up with options that can be shared with everyone.
In July the Reminder reported that Isobel Hamer, 65, had started a campaign to get the churchyard tidied up after describing it as a weed-infested eyesore.
She said that she had been tending her parents’ grave for nearly 30 years, and until this summer it had been a case of refreshing the flowers and pulling up a few stray weeds.
But this year the churchyard has been allowed to grow wild – to the extent that Isobel said she would soon need a strimmer to even find the headstone of her parents’ grave.
The church maintained that the decision to stop cutting the grass was to save both money and the environment.
