Anniversary August 1846

The month of August is an interesting anniversary.

On the 8th August 1846 the Board of the Cemetery Company had a pleasant surprise. They received a visit from a surprise visitor. That visitor was John Shields, the superintendent of York Cemetery. And this was not simply a courtesy visit. The Company minute book records that,

‘Mr John Shields, the superintendent of York Cemetery, called and laid before the chairman the following testimonials of character and stated that he would be at liberty on the first week of Sept.’

This news was a great, and probably quite a pleasant surprise. Here was an experienced superintendent of an existing cemetery who was offering his services to them. Although there appeared to be no other candidate for the post this may well have been because the Board had not gotten round to advertising for the post. They may well have not even given a thought to it. So this sudden arrival of John Shields must have almost been like manna from heaven.

The Minute book also actually records John Shields testimonial from York Cemetery,

York, August 7th 1846. The Board of the York Public Cemetery hereby certify that John Shields, our late manager and gardener has been 9 years in our service and during that time has conducted himself in an honest, sober, industrious and attentive manner and has filled his situation with ability.

Signed Thomas Price, Chairman, York Cemetery.’

On the 26th September the Board did take the proper and correct decision. They offered John the position of general superintendent, registrar and manager at the princely sum of £90 per annum. The Company also offered to pay his rent for his residence until the Lodge was inhabitable.

He remained in this post until his death in December 1866.

Anniversary June 1972

Cemetery Wildlife – June 2022

There has been some fine sunny weather this month.  Whilst not quite hot enough to describe as a heatwave, the temperature did reach over 25 degrees on a few days.  This has left the footpaths and the grass verge very dry as there has not been any significant rainfall this month.  Many of the Spring plants have now stopped flowering, leaving lots of seeds for the cemetery wildlife to eat.

Insects

I saw my first Red Admirals of the season in the cemetery.  The one above was in a sunny area near the volunteers’ cabin.  There were also some Speckled Woods around, and I saw a Large White on the Spring Bank West grass verge. Speckled Wood

Large White Male

June can be rather a quiet month for Butterflies.  The ones that emerged earlier in the year will have mated, laid their eggs and then died.  The period between that and the emergence of the next generation from July onwards is known as the ‘’June gap’’.  I’ve certainly found this to be the case, not just in the Cemetery but in other areas as well.

However, there were still plenty of other flying insects around.

White-tailed Bumblebee

I also found an insect I hadn’t seen before – a Plant Bug, which is the size of a Ladybird.  It doesn’t seem to have a specific common name, so I’ve included its scientific name on the photo.  This one is a female – the males are usually a lot darker.  They’re fairly new to this country, being first identified in 1996.

Plant Bug

I also found a different type of Ladybird – this Cream-spot one.  It’s a native British species, identified by its maroon-brown colour and the 14 cream spots on it.

Cream-Spot Ladybird

Plants

Some Poppies are now flowering in the grassy area in the centre of the Cemetery. Alongside the Red Campions and Buttercups, they add a nice splash of colour to all the lush greenery.

Poppy

The cemetery can sometimes look a bit tired at this time of year.  This is because the Spring flowering plants have now started to die back and in particular the Wild Garlic, Cow Parsley and Hogweed.  The grass verge can also look a little tired too.  But other plants have now started to flower such as the Creeping Thistle you can see on the White Butterfly and the Bee photos.  There is also White Clover, Common Mallow and Ragwort growing in this area.

Common Mallow

Ragwort

To give this area a boost, the Council provided the volunteers with a good selection of native wildflowers to set along here and this has now been done.  Due to the lack of rain I’ve had to go back and water them a few times on each of the hotter days.  I hope we get a decent amount of rainfall sooner rather than later!

Birds

The birds have been very active this month.  I’ve seen them gathering nesting material and also collecting food for their hungry chicks.  Some of the birds are very vocal too, especially the Song Thrushes, Blackcaps, Wrens and Robins.  An early morning walk is highly recommended – go nice and early and you can often have the whole place to yourself, with just the birds and other cemetery wildlife for company.

The dense foliage on all the trees makes the birds rather difficult to photograph.  They are very much a case of heard but not seen.  Well, maybe just a brief glimpse!

I haven’t seen any unusual birds this month, just the regular Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnocks, Blackbirds, Crows, Magpies, Wood Pigeons and Stock Doves in addition to the ones mentioned earlier.  Chaffinches are another common species in the cemetery.

Male Chaffinch

Fungi

There hasn’t been much to report recently, but I did find a Dryad’s Saddle later on in the month.  It wasn’t as large as some of the specimens I saw last year but it was still a nice surprise to see it.  Note the hole – obviously this is a good source of food for the cemetery wildlife, although I’m not sure which species.

Dryad's Saddle

Conclusion

June has been a warm, dry and sunny month, creating the perfect conditions for the flora and fauna in the cemetery.  The birds are around in good numbers, and I’ve seen some fledglings exploring the world outside their nests.

And finally, it’s nice to see one of the fallen logs being used by creatures that won’t leave any litter scattered around it!

Squirrels

 Cemetery wildlife – May 2022

Chris Ketchell

Some of you may remember Chris Ketchell. A local historian of note he initiated the Local History Unit in the mid 1980s. The list of his local history publications stretches for 7 pages of A4. The amount of projects and campaigns he was involved in was almost as long.

His involvement with the Hull General Cemetery was also over a long period. He roamed the site well before it’s ‘redevelopment’ by Hull City Council. Chris was one of the major figures in the fight against this wilful destruction of habitat and heritage. He loved the site. His work, ‘Grown in Sadness and Beauty’ was the first attempt at a written history of the site. The FOHGC owes much to this man’s influence and spirit in its custodianship of the site.

Sadly Chris died in 2011 with perhaps many more works to come from his fertile mind and pen.

Lecture and plaque

There is an annual local history lecture given to commemorate this man’s life usually during the month of his birthday, April. Due to the pandemic the lecture did not take place during 2020 and 2021. The decision was made to hold it again this year. It will take place in the lecture theatre at the Hull History Centre on the 7th July at 2.00 pm.

I’m proud to say that I will give the lecture this year. The talk will be loosely based upon my The Rise and Fall of Hull General Cemetery but the latter part will focus upon the fight against the ‘redevelopment’ of the site in the 70s and Chris’ part in that fight.

I’m also pleased to say that, after consultation with the Avenues and Pearson Park Residents Association (APPRA), they felt that it was now appropriate that an APPRA green plaque be attached to the house he lived in Westbourne Avenue. This will be unveiled some time this summer. A fitting tribute to Chris Ketchell.

 

Hello, Goodbye: The Art of Knowing When to Leave.

Hello, Goodbye.

You may remember the Beatles singing the above song. Not perhaps one of their better songs but it perhaps sums up my position.

This piece is looking at my introduction to Hull General Cemetery, at least in a work sense, and my recent decision to step back from the Friends, and to some extent, Hull General Cemetery. In essence it means having the ability, like any good guest should have, to know when its time to leave. So, that explains the Hello, Goodbye title.

Some of this was also prompted by a recent visit from my eldest son and his family. He entered the loft with the aim of retrieving some of his older computer stuff. Whilst there he discovered some things I’d forgotten about which will feature in this article.

Cemetery work

I started to work in cemeteries in August 1974. I was 22. I’d worked in factories for since leaving school and I’d had enough. I wanted to experience pastures new. And not just metaphorically. I wanted flowers, meadow grass, trees rather than thundering machines and conveyor processes. In essence I wanted nature rather than the satanic mills.

No, you would be forgiven for scratching your head here. What bit about grave digging, apart from the obvious, and disagreeable ones, equates to nature? Why did I choose this job.

Well, in all honesty, I did not particularly want to be a gravedigger. I just wanted to work for the Parks department. My ‘good’ luck was that the only vacancy going at that time was for a grave digger. When I stood in the portacabin in what is now the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust garden in the Pearson Park yard that was the job that was offered to me.

I was asked whether I had a problem with doing this job and I said, quite naively, no. I was 22 as I said, and of course I was pretending to be grown up. I didn’t have a problem with the job probably because I didn’t think it through. And also I didn’t get the time to think it through as I was asked to turn up at Northern Cemetery the next day at 7,30 a.m.

Pay check

That was how I started as a grave digger. Here’s my Parks pay check which, back in those more innocent times, had to be shown to collect my wage packet every week. The wages were delivered to every site via a taxi. How the taxi was never robbed by some likely lads with stockings over their heads and carrying ‘shooters’ I have no idea?

Pay check

By 1979 I had worked at the job for 5 years. I was pretty good at it. I’d overcome the nasty parts of the job. You take the rough with the smooth with any job. I had access to flowers, trees, meadow grass now. On the rough side I had gained experience with some of the less pleasant aspects of nature. You don’t want to know about that and I’m not going to tell you.

Boredom

But I was getting bored. Not just with the job but I was becoming very aware that I needed more stimulation. It’s something I suffer from and it has coloured every job I have had.

By this time I had become a shop steward. Probably due to this role I was conscious of gaining some respect from colleagues and management as a ‘bright lad’. My intelligence was being called upon more and more. And I enjoyed it too. I’d been offered the role as a foreman but my socialist principles wouldn’t let me take that step.

So, to offset this boredom, I transferred to Western Cemetery in May 1979 in a straight transfer. Well, two staff went to Northern to replace me and I went to Western. I told you I was good didn’t I? And yes, I know, the sin of pride etc. But, in all honesty and humility, I was bloody good at this job.

The job at Western Cemetery was basically the same but the vista was different. Western was more historic and, as I’ve said many times, the staff’s duties at Western included HGC too at that time. On the whole the transfer enabled the historian in me to be indulged.

Leaving for university

However I was planning for a life beyond digging graves. I had experienced some trade union teaching at Hull University and elsewhere. This enabled me to do my work as a union rep better. It was my first taste of education since I had left school, when, aged 15, I’d sworn that I’d never go in a classroom again. So, this ‘mature student’ thing I’d heard of became more than a possibility. University here we come.

I gained a place and the rest is history. However my workmates at Western decided to send me on my way in style. Here’s the card they gave me on the day I left.

Front of card

They also bought me a pen and a dictionary.

Here’s the inside of the card.

Inside of the card

And, as you would expect from me, I thanked them and said that, as they couldn’t spell colleagues, they should perhaps keep the dictionary. I was joking of course. They’d worked with me long enough to know that.

That was in September 1981. Over 40 years ago now. Sadly, three of those colleagues are no longer with us. I attended the funeral of the third of that group in January of this year. He was laid to rest in Western Cemetery. Another of that small group I last met in the mid 1990’s and the final one I last saw the day I received the card and took my leave of them all..

Shelf life

Goodbye.

Now to today. There is a ‘shelf life’ to us all. The major one is when we are born and when we die. But even within our lives there are other points where change happens. As the example above of me leaving the parks department shows, change happens. Those people who signed the card were my day-to-day companions for more than two years. We shared trials and tribulations together as well as the good times.

Now, I have no idea where the two remaining members of that group are or whether they are still alive. In September 1981 my ‘shelf life’ for being a gravedigger had run out. It’s just a natural thing. We do it all the time. It’s called living your life..

The ghost in the machine

As the Beatles sang in their song Hello, Goodbye, ‘You say stop, I say go’. Well I intend to do both of those things.

I now feel that my ‘shelf life’ with the Friends has probably run its course. I can’t put my finger on a specific reason for this other than my instinct that I have taken my part of the FOHGC as far as I can. I feel that the baton should be passed on.

Of course I will still help where I can. I can always be called upon to support the future work of the Friends. But right now I think the Friends needs someone more dynamic to sit in this chair. Someone with both the historical and also the environmental interests of the cemetery in mind when future decisions are taken. Someone with more time and energy than I possess right now.

Helen Bovill

At a recent meeting of the Friends it was decided that Helen Bovill should take on that role. No thumbscrews were necessary. A willing volunteer is worth a hundred times a conscript. She will make an excellent chair and spokesperson for the group. I’m sure that you all will wish her success in her new role as indeed all of the members of the FOHGC do.

In terms of the website I’ll be carrying on for a little while but that too needs to be passed on to more capable hands. When that change happens is not known yet but will probably be in the summer. I’ll still send the odd article in to whoever is editing it after that, and if they think it’s good enough they might even post it.

Anyway, thanks for all the support, help and kindness shown to me over the past few years.

We’ve all come a long way. Let’s hope the path is a little clearer and gentler for all of us from now on.

 

Anniversary March 1877

This month’s anniversary is interesting. In May 1876 a discussion took place as to whether a clock tower should be built in the grounds or a clock installed in the lodge. The question rattled back and forth for months. By that September the decision was taken to install the clock into the Lodge belfry.

HGC Lodge pre 1877

This repair work was to cost £94. 5s which was a considerable sum for a building that was only 30 years old.

The AGM

In March 1877 the decision was ratified at the AGM and the plan was to install the clock and also conduct some repair work to the Lodge as it,

AGM discussion regarding the installation of the clock.

 

This interaction is interesting in a number of ways. Firstly the decision to repair to the original design shows that the Lodge was something they were proud of. Somewhat different to their feelings in the late 1840s. Then it was obvious from the Company paperwork that the Board were heartily sick of the troubles the Lodge had caused them.

Secondly, it shows the Cemetery Company still wanting to present a good image of itself to the community. The placing of the clock was civic minded. Yes, they may have cloaked this idea with the line, ‘business of the cemetery’ but they knew progress was happening.

By this time, D. P. Garbutt had begun the development of the Avenues. This development, to the Board,  was surely just the beginnings of the area the Cemetery occupied becoming more salubrious. Who knows where that may lead?

As such the installation of a clock was a smart move. It was civic-minded enough to appeal, yet it’s cost was small. In essence, a win-win situation for the Company.

Fixing the clock

The Company received a tender for fixing the clock from a Mr George Pickering of Prospect Street. This tender was accepted and the cost of making and installing the clock was £7.

The final cost of repairing the Lodge and installing the clock was a stupendous £124 10s. At this time the Company were still desirous of making a show and if that meant spending money, then so be it.

Later in its long life it would not be so happy to do so.

The Lodge to the left with clock.

 

The Cemetery Burial Records

Some of you may remember that, as part of the rehabilitation of Hull General Cemetery, some research and administrative tasks were to be carried out. It was hoped that when these tasks were completed it would help to raise the profile of the site.

One of those tasks was to transcribe the Cemetery burial records onto an Excel spreadsheet. This would then be placed onto this site so that people could search for their relatives or use it for research for other purposes. We were also going to share this database with the Carnegie Heritage Centre, the East Yorkshire Family History Society  and also the Hull History Centre.

https://www.carnegiehull.co.uk/  

https://www.eyfhs.org.uk/

https://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/home.aspx

Still our aim

That is still our aim. You’ll be glad to know that this exercise is reaching the final stages. It’s about 80% complete. We would like to have it completed by the Heritage Open Days in September this year.  Perhaps even have a ‘Grand Opening’ of it at a venue yet to be decided upon.

However, to make that date we would like to ask you to join us in finalising this project.

You will need your own computer and access to the internet. The actual work involved is light but it does need patience and attention to detail.

This project will be invaluable to the City of Hull as well as the professional researcher and the person who just wants to find their ancestor’s grave.

Here’s an example  of a burial record so you can see what the job entails. Its from July 1860. As you can see the social history is apparent from the first entry. Rebecca Day dying of fever in Hull Borough Asylum. This building, the last remains of it having been demolished within the last two years, was set at the back of the present HRI. Just think how much more you could find out.

Hull Cemetery Burial record 1860

 

If you want to be part of this project then please contact the FOHGC. We’ll guide you through it and help where its needed.

Hold the front page!

Sorry, I’ve always wanted to write that and this is the closest I can get to it.

I just thought I’d let you know that I will be giving a talk at the Hull Central Library on Saturday, 19th February. The talk may probably be the last time I’ll be doing The Rise and Fall of Hull General Cemetery.

The talk takes place in the old Local Studies Library, known as the James Reckitt room. It starts at 11.00 a.m. and I think there is a charge of £1.

Hope to see you there.

Cemetery Wildlife September

As Summer Ends and Autumn begins we are now at that time of year when the days are roughly the same length as the nights. Cemetery Wildlife – August Well, for a couple of weeks anyway.  At the time of writing it looks like this September is set to be the warmest one on record.  For a few days we had temperatures in the mid to high 20s and it has been very dry with rain falling on only a couple of days.  This has created perfect conditions for a leisurely stroll to appreciate the cemetery wildlife.

Birds

Not much to report this month – the birds are still around but proving hard to capture on film.  The ones born this year are slowly starting to develop their adult plumage, such as this Chaffinch.

Juvenile Chaffinch (male)

You can see the steely blue crescent starting to appear around the head, indicating that this one is a male.

The volunteers sunk a shallow dish into the ground in the Quaker Burial Ground recently and the birds seem to appreciate this. No doubt other wildlife such as Squirrels and Foxes will appreciate it too.

Blackbirds

On a couple of days towards the end of the month I heard a Tawny Owl calling at sunset and this is very encouraging as the call seemed to be coming from the direction of the Owl boxes.

And finally, I was surprised to see a couple of Parakeets flying overhead while I was walking along Princes Avenue!  They were quite high up but from their call I could tell they were Ring-necked Parakeets.  It was disappointing to realise they were not headed for the Cemetery but probably for Pearson Park or East Park, where they have occasionally been sighted.

Butterflies and other insects

There are still some butterflies around including this Red Admiral on the grass verge along Spring Bank West.  It is a shame that it landed on a piece of litter but this butterfly looked too perfect not to take a quick photo!

Red Admiral

There were also some Small Whites along the verge, and a Holly Blue feeding on a Thistle.

Small White (male)

Holly Blue

But the butterfly most often seen inside the cemetery is the Speckled Wood.  They seem to be the easiest ones to photograph because they rest mainly on leaves and remain still long enough to get a good photo.

Speckled Wood

This was taken in the recently trimmed meadow area in the centre of the Cemetery.  The volunteers took care not to cut down the Teasel and as soon as the area around it was cleared the plant was buzzing with insects.

Teasel with Hoverflies

It is also that time of year when there are plenty of spiders around.  One of the most common ones is the Cross or Garden Spider.  It is a member of the Orb-weaving family and has a distinctive cross marking on its abdomen.  Many can be found in our gardens and parks as well as in the cemetery.  Look out for them and if you’re lucky you might get to see one creating its web.  It’s a fascinating process.

Spiders pair

This one has its prey neatly trussed up ready for consumption at a later date. The photo on the left shows a different spider of the same species, resting on our gardening equipment.

Also seen in the meadow area was this attractive White-lipped Snail.

White Lipped Snail

Plants

There are very few plants in flower at the moment.  A few Hogweed are still in flower, but most have now gone to seed – a good food source for the cemetery wildlife.

Hogweed

Other flowers seen this month are Feverfew, Thistle and Smooth Sow-thistle.  There is also some Cyclamen in flower near the Cholera Monument, although this is not a wild flower.

Smooth Sow Thistle

Cyclamen

Many of the plants have now started to produce berries and I hope to write in more detail about this next month.

Mushrooms

I have not found anything new this month, other than the usual very tiny Fairy Inkcaps growing in groups on the ground.

Conclusion

The cemetery is a great place to see and hear wildlife.  It is a great place to remember and appreciate the lives of the people who are buried here.  It is also a great place to appreciate the artistic beauty of the headstones and memorials.

Also it is a great place for photography.  As we head into Autumn the changing colours of the leaves and the increasing levels of light create the perfect setting for taking photos of the cemetery wildlife. Why not give it a go and share your photos on our very popular and vibrant Facebook page?

Heritage Open Days

As part of the Heritage Open Days there were two guided walks arranged.

The first one, on the 11th, was blessed with good weather, and as such attracted a large crowd. So did the second on the 18th. The count for each walk was around 50 to 60 people.

When dealing with such large groups one has to employ a louder voice. You also need to bypass some headstones as it’s just impossible to accommodate all of the people around them safely.

11 9 2021 hgc walk

Also, in large groups, people move at a different speed and the slowest speed becomes the group norm. This usually means you cannot do all of the walk. This is what happened on the both walks. We concentrated on the headstones along the north side of the cemetery and terminated the walk at the Workhouse mound.

My reasoning for this was that the newcomers to the Cemetery may have never ventured into the site. They may have been a little intimidated to go out of sight of Spring Bank West. Therefore the back road would have been new territory to them and that’s why I chose it.

I hope everyone who ventured into the wilds of the Cemetery enjoyed it.

New guided walk

One of the results of these truncated walks was that another walk has been arranged to take place. This will be on October 2nd at 11.00 a.m.

18 9 2021 HGC walk 2

 

18 9 2021 HGC walk1

The walk will go from Princes Avenue corner along the south side of the Cemetery. Along the way you’ll find the grave of a man who managed to bribe the electors of the 1853 parliamentary election. You’ll see the grave of an artist who lived through the Indian Mutiny. The grave of the man who built the iron Eleanor Crosses that grace the cemetery, the grave of the man who founded the Wilson shipping line and many others.

I’m looking forward to next years’ Heritage Open Days.

APPRA

The Avenues and Pearson Park Resident’s Association, or APPRA as its more commonly called, published an article about the work of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery this quarter. I’m posting it as I think it may as well be covered here. I wrote it some tine ago. I hope you find it interesting.

appra

Cemetery Wildlife – August 2021

August was a quiet month, weather-wise, with no extremes of heat, cold or rain but with plenty of dull days.  Pretty much a typical summer month in these parts! Summer Wildlife

Birds

It seems to have been a good year for the cemetery’s birds, with plenty of young ones around.  All the cemetery’s Tit species have bred successfully – Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal (pictured above).  There are some young Blackbirds around, and I saw a young Song Thrush too – its tail feathers will appear later but it is still able to fly without them.

Juvenile Song Thrush

The best, albeit brief, sighting this month was a pair of Bullfinches but I didn’t manage to get a photograph of either of them.  The young Goldfinches of last month’s report are doing well and starting to feed independently.

There are plenty of Chaffinches around and these are easy to spot, especially the males with their pinkish-brown feathers.  The females are much duller shades of brown and can sometimes be mistaken for Sparrows.  But male and female Chaffinches have white feathers in their wings which make them easily identifiable in flight.

Male Chaffinch

Female Chaffinch

I find it fascinating that the males and females of some bird species have distinctly different plumage – for example, Chaffinches and Bullfinches.  This is known as sexual dimorphism. Their differences are quite obvious to see.  However, the differences between male and female Goldfinches are much more subtle to the point of them being almost identical.  I would not be able to say with confidence what sex the Goldfinches of last month’s report were!

Butterflies and other insects

It has been a very quiet month for butterflies.  One of my neighbours has a huge Buddleia in her garden which is normally teeming with butterflies in August.  I have only seen a couple on it so far and this lack of activity is reflected in the cemetery.  I caught brief glimpses of a few White butterflies (I was unable to tell which species) and I saw a Holly Blue flying high around some Ivy.

The most common butterfly species in the cemetery is the Speckled Wood and on sunny days there are usually a few around.  They flutter around each other in the air and then spend time basking in the sun.  This one was in the Quaker Burial Ground.

Speckled Wood

There are Ladybirds and Hoverflies around too but not in great numbers.

Marmalade Hoverfly on Wild Carrot

Flowers and other plants

The Cow Parsley and Wild Garlic has died back completely to the point where it’s hard to see where it once grew.  Any plants now in flower that look a bit like Cow Parsley will most likely either be Hogweed, which is quite a tall plant, or the lower-growing Wild Carrot.

I struggled to find anything in flower to show you this month.  The cemetery is still very green though!  I did manage to find a few Buttercups, Herb Robert, Nipplewort, Great Willowherb and Feverfew.  The berries are now starting to appear on the Snowberry bush but it is still in flower.

Nipplewort

 

Great Willowherb

 

Feverfew

 

Snowberry

My main aim is to write about the wild flowers and plants in the cemetery.  This section of the newsletter is called Cemetery Wildlife after all!  But many of the trees and shrubs growing in the cemetery are there because of what was planted in the past.  They have now become naturalised so I will not draw any distinctions between these and the wild flowers.  Regardless of whether or not they are native, they still have value to the cemetery wildlife.

The volunteers will only be planting native species in the cemetery, such as a recently planted English Oak.  Any wild flowers to be set will be native species that will blend in with their surroundings and complement what is already growing there.

The situation in the Quaker Burial Ground is slightly different because this area is owned by the Quakers under a long lease.  They have requested that the Friends of Hull General Cemetery manage this area on their behalf.  It is still in a conservation area where the same considerations apply with regard to the felling of trees and so on.  But we have been able to set some new shrubs and plants that are not necessarily native species.  However, we will also be planting some native species whenever we can.

Mushrooms

I have not seen any fresh large specimens this month, but there are still plenty of tiny mushrooms to be seen growing on the ground.  Given that the footpaths are covered in wood chippings this is not unexpected!

Mammals

I have no new Fox or Hedgehog sightings to report, but there are always some Grey Squirrels around and these can be seen almost every day.  There will always be someone who doesn’t like them of course.  But I never tire of watching them chasing each other up and around the trees, or simply posing on the ground.  And what child doesn’t love seeing them during family walks through our favourite cemetery?

The Grey Squirrel can vary in colour quite a lot – this one has a brilliant white chest and mainly grey/brown colouring.  But some Squirrels can have more gingery hairs and very pale ginger chests.

Eastern Grey squirrel

Conclusion

A rather uneventful month for the cemetery wildlife, with the dull and cooler days perhaps accounting for the low numbers of butterflies on the wing.  The grass verge on Spring Bank West still doesn’t contain many flowers and this will have affected butterfly numbers too.  But the birds are around in good numbers.  Berries are now starting to appear on the bushes so they will have plenty of food to keep them going as we head into September. Dare I say that it is starting to feel slightly Autumnal already?