Love your Burial Ground Week: Caring for Our Churchyard Together
Each year, Love Your Burial Ground Week (6–14 June), organised by Caring for God’s Acre, encourages those who care for churchyards, chapel yards and cemeteries to celebrate these special places. It’s a lovely opportunity to reflect on the beauty, peace and community value of spaces like our own at St Giles’.
Covering around five acres, including the Drive and Dell, St Giles’ Churchyard is maintained in a natural and environmentally sensitive way. In spring, it comes alive with snowdrops, daffodils, primroses, bluebells and oxeye daisies—carefully left to flourish before any cutting takes place. Alongside this, more than 200 mature trees are regularly surveyed and maintained.
Much of this care is made possible by our dedicated volunteer Church Yard Working Party. Meeting monthly, with around 12–16 volunteers from a team of 25, they take on a wide range of tasks throughout the year—from grass cutting and hedge trimming to leaf clearing and general upkeep. Their work ensures the churchyard remains both welcoming and respectful, with memorials accessible while preserving its natural beauty.
The churchyard is not only a place to visit loved ones, but also a peaceful setting for prayer, quiet reflection and enjoying creation. With deer wandering in from Ashtead Park, as well as foxes, badgers and grass snakes, it is rich in wildlife.
As we mark Love Your Burial Ground Week, we give thanks for all who help care for this special place and celebrate the life, beauty and peace it offers to so many.
Thank you to John Kester and the whole Churchyard Working Party Team. If you are interested in serving on this team at a future gathering then please speak to John or contact reception@ashteadparish.org