Category: Wildlife

Cemetery Wildlife September

by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife2 Comments on 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?

Tree hugging

by Pete Lowdenin General, Volunteers, Walks, Wildlife

Tree hugging gets a bad name. It’s used as pejorative term to denote people who are not on speaking terms with reality. As my mother would have said, ‘away with the fairies’. This was usually when she was talking about me.

Moving on.

However, in some cases, it can be a useful tool to estimate the age of a tree. The item below is taken from a book, ‘Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape’ by Mary-Ann Ochota. It was published in 2016. It’s worth buying.

As Mary-Ann says in her introduction,

‘When you look at the British landscape, you don’t just see the new, the now: you also see the traces of what came before – in the shape of a field, the wall of a cottage, a standing stone or churchyard.’

In essence, history is all around us and its up to us to read it. In terms of the cemetery the easy bits to read are the headstones.

Tree hugging

Other things are a little more tricky. And here we come to the trees. Some of the trees in the cemetery are probably remnants of the original plantings when the cemetery was laid out in 1847. Now that’s close on 200 years old. That’s a decent age. Only long lived species will have survived that length of time. So Oaks, Limes, Ash, Horse Chestnut and maybe Whitebeams are the likely survivors of the original planting.

The ubiquitous Sycamore that swamps the cemetery now is almost certainly not an original planting. Indeed it’s doubtful it was planted at all but invaded from outside. The Silver Birches that were originally planted will have died by now as their life spans are almost comparable to humans. The Yew in the Quaker Burial Ground would not have been planted until 1855 at the earliest. So that one’s easy to date.

But here’s a fun way to gauge the age of some of the trees in the cemetery.

How old is that tree

As Mary-Ann says, this could be fun, especially with children. Once the foliage dies down and it gets easier to get to some of the trees, why not try it?  Half term might be a good time.

Here’s a handy chart to help you with an Oak. You won’t be far off with other trees using this guide. Good hunting.

How old is that tree 2

 

 

Cemetery Wildlife – August 2021

by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife4 Comments on 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?

News

by Pete Lowdenin Events, General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife3 Comments on News

Last month a meeting took place between the Councillors, a number of Council Officers and the FOHGC. Andrew Wilson, Parks and Open Spaces Manager chaired the meeting This meeting was called to resolve some of the issues that are facing the Hull General Cemetery at this time. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC

Friends of Hull General Cemetery Statement

Following a recent meeting with representatives of Hull City Council (the Council), the Council confirmed that the Friends of Hull General Cemetery (the Friends) are the designated partners of the Council for the management of Hull General Cemetery (the Cemetery).  The Cemetery’s description as a “Semi natural green space incorporating historical assets, located within a conservation area” has been agreed with the Council.

The Friends will liaise with the Council’s Bereavement Services department regarding the care of the monuments and headstones, and will manage and care for the natural environment in accordance with the guidelines set out by the Council’s Open Spaces Development Officer.  The Friends will submit regular ‘Proposed’ plans of the work to be carried out in the Cemetery, such plans having been agreed with the Council.

These plans will take into account the bird nesting season which was established as being from 1 March to 31 July; no major work is to be undertaken during this period.  The Friends will abide by all legal responsibilities under the relevant Acts of Parliament such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

The partnership between the Friends and the Council is a two-way one; the Council should advise the Friends of the Council’s proposed activities in the Cemetery such as push tests, grass cutting and tree felling.

The Friends are also working in partnership with the local Quaker group on the restoration and upkeep of the Quaker Burial Ground towards the western end of the Cemetery.

 

Summer Wildlife

by Helen Bovillin General, Wildlife4 Comments on Summer Wildlife

Summer Wildlife: July

What a month of contrasts July has been, going from torrential downpours earlier in the month to a heatwave in the middle of it!

It’s a relief to start this month’s report with some good news – Hull City Council has apologised for the cutting of the grass verge alongside the cemetery in early June, stating it had been done by their operator in error.

They do appreciate the value of such Summer wildlife habitats and as a result they are going to designate the grass verge as a ‘’no mow’’ area.  This means they will only cut the grass and the plants at the back of it at the end of Summer or early in Autumn.  They are also going to set some wildflower seeds in the bare area, so next year we should see some additional plants growing there as well as the usual ones.

The grass has started to grow back now, and luckily there are plenty of flowers on the Brambles at the back of the verge – an important source of nectar for Bees and other pollinating insects.

Butterflies and insects

Another quiet month for butterflies, with just a few Speckled Woods and Large Whites around.  I also saw a Small Tortoiseshell, but the best sighting this month was a Red Admiral, which kept me company while I was working in the Quaker Burial Ground.

Red Admiral 2

Whenever you see a butterfly fluttering nearby it’s always worth holding your arm out to see if it lands on you – this is one of the species that will sometimes do this.  It remained on my hand for half an hour, presumably feeding on the minerals on my skin.  (Polite description of sweat, an unlimited food source for the butterfly that hot day).

This gave the other volunteers an opportunity to observe a butterfly up close, and to appreciate the need to plant and maintain shrubs and flowers that attract and sustain them.

There were lots of Ladybirds of varying sizes and colours around.  In many cases it is not easy to identify which species they are because some species have colour and spot number variations within that species.

There are around a dozen native UK species, three of which are yellow.  I thought I’d found one of those, but this one is a Harlequin.

Harlequin Ladybird

Birds

There are still plenty of fledglings or juveniles around.  But sometimes it is difficult to tell which are the young ones and which are the adults because at this time of the year the adults start the process of replacing their feathers.

This can sometimes give them a rather scruffy look compared with the smoother look of the juveniles.

Blue tits

It seems to have been a good year for Blue Tits and Great Tits, with many of the earlier fledglings no longer being reliant on their parents for food.

There are young Blackbirds, Robins and Chaffinches around and I was lucky to have the pleasure of observing a family of five newly-fledged Goldfinches being fed by both their parents.

Goldfinches

Juvenile goldfinches

Juvenile Goldfinches are easy to identify because of the yellow feathers in their wings.

The black, white and red feathers on their faces come later.  Both sexes are similar.

Goldfinch

A regular visitor to the cemetery showed me some footage he’d taken on his mobile phone of a female Mallard walking through the cemetery with some ducklings following behind her! I hope they made it safely to the nearest large body of water, which is in Pearson Park.

Mallards have been known to nest in some unusual places including balconies on high-rise flats.  They can then sometimes need human assistance to get them to safety.

Another bird I haven’t seen in the cemetery for a while is the Collared Dove, so I was pleased to see one this month.

collared dove

Flowers and other plants

The natural dying-off of the Cow Parsley and Hogweed has continued, and some Wild Carrot has now appeared.

When fully open it looks a bit like a shorter version of Cow Parsley, but it has some feathery leaves underneath the flower head.  The buds look a bit like Love-in-a-Mist buds.

Wild carrot

Not many plants are in flower at the moment.  There are the usual Buttercups, Daisies and Clover to see. There is now some Enchanter’s Nightshade, Broad-leaved Willow herb and Hedge Woundwort in flower.

Hedge Woundwort

Prior to the Stop Notice the volunteers had planted some species approved by the Council as being appropriate for the site in various places around the Cemetery.  The Foxgloves were doing well and had started to flower but some have been pulled up and others had their flower stems broken.  Why anyone would do this is beyond me.

The Stop Notice meant that the volunteers were not allowed to set any plants in the area we were hoping would become a butterfly meadow.

So rather than see them go to waste, we set the plants in two areas near the path behind Thoresby Street school.  These included Sunflowers, Cornflowers and other mixed wildflowers.  These spare areas of unused land are in a rather shady location but the Cornflowers are now flowering.

Cornflower and hoverfly

Mushrooms

It is sad to have to report that another beautiful specimen of a Dryad’s Saddle has been destroyed by someone.  At first large parts of it had been sliced off. A few days later the rest had been removed leaving no trace of it.  Vandalism?  Theft?  Either way this is very disheartening and disappointing, and there are no more large specimens left in the Cemetery now.

There are still a few smaller mushrooms around including these tiny Fairy Inkcaps.

fairy Inkcaps

Mammals

A regular visitor to the cemetery reported seeing a Hedgehog in there one evening. I know  one has also been seen in some of the adjoining gardens along Welbeck Street.  It would be nice to think that this increasingly scarce little animal might find a safe place to live and raise a family in the Cemetery.

One evening around sunset a group of volunteers met up to take part in a national Bat survey.  While we were waiting for the bats to emerge, we caught a brief glimpse of a Fox and two cubs in the distance.  We had two bat detecting devices with us, and we heard and saw a few Pipistrelles. The best sightings were just outside the boundary in Western Cemetery.

Conclusion

It has been a successful month for the birds of the Cemetery, with plenty of youngsters around the site.  But in Summer wildlife can be hard to spot; there are probably many other young birds and animals I didn’t manage to see.  The damage to plants and Fungi was disheartening, but the Butterflies continue to bring joy.

And after the heavy rains and high temperatures of the first half of the month, it ended with some much cooler and cloudy weather.

Let’s see what August has in store for all that call Hull General Cemetery home! Wonderful Wildlife

Next Month

by Pete Lowdenin Events, General, History, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Hi,

Firstly, an apology. I was going to tell you the story this month of the very last board meeting of the Company and the extraordinary decision they had to make there.  This was to be the anniversary spot this month. Sadly, I’m a bit dense. It should have been last month because it happened in June 1972!!

However, people appeared to like last month’s anniversary item, so its swings and roundabouts. I promise I will write up that story for the future

Next month I’m going to be giving the bulk of the newsletter over to Bill and Helen mainly. Bill’s contributions are from Facebook and we’re attempting to archive them all on here so they can be found more easily. And preserved too. Helen I’m sure will show us more of the wildlife in the Cemetery and it’s changing faces every month.

I’ll finish off the story of Peter Hodsman’s sons. Both stonemason’s of the Cemetery Company. Stonemason of the Cemetery

By the time of the next newsletter we should be back to ‘normality’, whatever that term might mean now.

With that July 19th date in mind, who knows, we may be able to meet up with the powers that be and start asking some searching questions about what the Council want from us and vica versa. We’ll see.

 

Anniversary: July 1880

by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Wildlife

This month the anniversary we are celebrating is an unusual one It took place in July 1880.

One of the problems that Hull General Cemetery faced, and surprisingly is still facing, is access to water. Not the rising water that you’d expect from a cemetery built alongside two drains. No, the problem was, and is, the difficulty in obtaining fresh water.

There was a well built when the Cemetery opened. This was in the work yard to the north east of the site. This was used by the workforce for watering the Cemetery horse, cleaning the stables, cutting the stonework and other tasks.

What a bore!

However there was nowhere for patrons of the cemetery to replenish their water for their flowers. After numerous complaints the Board decided to do something about this.

In June 1880 they asked a Mr Villiers, a surveyor, to construct a bore hole in the cemetery. A price was fixed of around £12 for this task and on the 1st July 1880 Mr Villiers set to.

The bore hole passed through many layers, as the Minute Books tell us, and finally reached a fresh water spring.

The creation of a water supply in the middle of the cemetery

So the borehole was 93 feet deep. The strata that this bore passed through is very interesting. It probably shows the way most of the geology of the Hull Valley is comprised. Clay, chalk, marl and flint. At some point it was a sea bed. A sea bed from million of years ago. I still have the proof.

When I worked in the Cemetery, when it was much less overgrown, it was possible to pick up Gryphaea arcuata by the handful. Known commonly as Devil’s Toenails, they are a fossilised mollusc or type of ancient oyster.

They lived mainly during the Triassic and Jurassic period. Approximately they lived 200 million years ago. I was always surprised that these fossils were so abundant. And also, only in Hull General. I never found any in Western Cemetery next door. What was going on?

A group pf Gryphaea

Jurassic Park

I now believe that I have solved that mystery. I think that they were abundant because they had been returned to the surface from the depths they had been buried in over those millions of years. By the drilling of this bore hole the debris from it would have been returned to the surface. In the debris the Gryphaea must have laid.

The Gryphaea were seeing the light of day for the first time in a very long time. This debris, from the borings, would have been scattered around the Cemetery. It’s hardly likely that it would have been carted away and there is no mention of it being moved away. As a result of the spreading of the debris these small fossils were strewn over a large area.

Well, that’s the best answer I can come up with anyway to explain their abundance..

Their presence in such quantities should perhaps cause us all to pause for thought. At one time they owned the site of the Cemetery. It truly was a Jurassic Park. An underwater one, true, but nevertheless it was their home.

Moving forward

Much, much later wild birds and aquatic mammals would have lived in this swamp land of the River Hull valley after the last ice age. Still later, hunters would have arrived and caught and killed these creatures. Setting up make-shift camps before moving on when the game dried up.

Still later, hardy sheep, goats and possibly cattle would have been driven on to the land in the summer when it dried sufficiently for grazing. When the winter rains came they would be driven back to stockades and huts on the high ground around Cottingham to live on hay until butchered and salted.

By the medieval period the site became permanent pasture land after drainage work. This pasturage and garden land was then transformed by the Cemetery Company into a manicured semi-forested area.

At present it has become a much more forested area than it has ever been. It’s probably at its peak now as a forest.

Change is the only constant of the universe

All of these changes have happened to this small stretch of land. Just 13 acres or about 8 hectares.

All of the above, from ancient oysters to forest trees have called it their home. And all have passed away as the present residents will at some point. There’s a small part of me that’s sad about that. There is, of course, a much greater part of me that is pleased about it too. These changes that have happened in the past and will happen in the future show that evolution continues. And without evolution life itself dies.

So, when people start getting exercised about such things, it’s as well to remember that. We’re not custodians. We’re just passing through like all the rest. And that includes the trees, the wildlife, the humans. We’re just a blink of an eye in the scale of things. Don’t get me wrong here. I would like all of the environment that I am familiar with to survive ad infinitum. It won’t but I’d like it to survive.

People talk blithely about ‘saving the planet’. I happen to know that the planet has, unless it is very unlucky and has some gigantic collision with another space object, at least another four billion years left. The phrase ‘saving the planet’ is totally meaningless. Trust me on this. The planet will be here long after we, the trees, the oysters have gone.

Taxi for Homo Sapiens?

When people use that term they are really saying ‘save the present environment so humanity, especially me and mine, can continue to exist’. Which is something similar to my comment earlier.

But, when you think of it, that is a pretty pointless exercise. We know the world will change, either by our doing (which seems likely) or some other factor (which also is likely).  The only thing we should be confident about is that it will change. Just ask the Gryphaea. They lived in the sea and here they are now, buried metres underground.

We have our time now, just like the Gryphaea had theirs then. And when our time is over… well, evolution will carry on.

And after a million years or so we’ll leave behind less trace than the Gryphaea.

I find that strangely comforting after a few years of picking up the detritus that other people leave in the cemetery.

 

 

Wonderful Wildlife – June 2021

by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Wonderful Wildlife

June

It is very disheartening to have to start a report with bad news.  At the start of June Hull City Council cut down the vast majority of the wildflowers growing in and behind the grass verge adjacent to the Cemetery on Spring Bank West.  An important resource for pollinating insects and in turn other wonderful wildlife has thus been lost, and in the middle of the bird nesting season too.

The Council has not at the time of writing this provided FOHGC with an explanation for their actions.  I also made my own complaint about the destruction in my capacity as a private individual.  The Council’s last email to me said they couldn’t respond yet ‘’due to the complexity of the issues involved’’.

I took the above photo just a few days before the destruction of this attractive and important wildlife resource.  The Council’s mowing also went back further than the grass verge and into the Cemetery itself.  This seems to be in direct conflict with the Stop Order the Council placed on the volunteers in April.

Birds

Now that the trees are in full leaf the birds are harder to see.  They can still be heard though – Chiffchaffs, Robins, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chaffinches and many others’ songs filling the air as usual.  I once saw a report (I can’t remember where and therefore provide a link) that birds in urban areas sing up to 20% louder than their counterparts in the countryside.  This makes sense, as our birds have the traffic noise on Spring Bank West to contend with.

young blue tit

Some of the birds I did manage to see were busy gathering food for their chicks, many of which will now have fledged.  Young Blue Tits are the same size as the adults but are a lot paler in colour.  They have powder blue legs and the yellow gape is still visible at the sides of their beaks.

Butterflies and Other Insects

There were not many butterflies around this month.  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 what has become known as the ‘’June gap’’.

There were still some Speckled Woods around though and I caught a brief glimpse of a Red Admiral.  I also found an Orange-tip caterpillar.  This will then pupate away from its food plant and emerge as an adult next Spring.

Speckled Wood butterfly

There are currently lots of these unusual little bugs around – they’re Ladybird larvae.

Ladybird larva

Flowers and other plants

Lots of Summer flowers are now starting to open inside the Cemetery, including a Rhododendron.  Opinions are divided as to whether this is a good or bad plant to have here, but it is small and not growing close to any of the headstones.  It adds an attractive splash of colour in a shaded area and provides a source of nectar for insects.

Bearing in mind the destruction of so many of the wildflowers on the grass verge, any source of nectar is more important than ever.

Rhododendron

The Cow Parsley, Hogweed and Wild Garlic has started to die back as expected.  There are plenty of smaller wildflowers now coming through including Buttercups, Speedwell, Wood Avens and Red Campion.

Some of the flowers planted by the volunteers prior to the Stop Notice are now starting to flower but I will talk about those in the next newsletter.

Campion

Mushrooms Wonderful Wildlife

Some more glistening Inkcaps were seen on a log, and I found some Common Inkcaps too.

Inkcap fungi

But the best find was a beautiful Chicken of the Woods!  It was the first time I’d seen one in the Cemetery but unfortunately a few days after I took the photo on the left someone removed most of it.  The photo on the right shows where the brackets have been sliced off.

Another sad, selfish and disheartening act, this time by an individual.  This has deprived other people of the change to simply enjoy looking at some beautiful and amazing specimens.

Chicken fungus

Mammals

A new sub-heading to reflect the very good news that the foxes have had at least two cubs!

Fox caught on camera

The foxes are rarely seen during the day so one of the volunteers placed their own trail camera in a secluded position away from the footpaths.  And the results were very encouraging to say the least!  The camera is no longer there; this was just a quick experiment for a few nights only.

Conclusion

Overall a month of mixed fortunes for the wonderful wildlife of our favourite cemetery.

We can only hope that the Council will allow the grass verge to recover so that we can once again enjoy seeing the wildflowers, butterflies, bees and other insects as we walk past or linger to take a photo or two.

The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

by Bill Longbonein General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment on The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

As everyone should know by now, there has been a complaint made about the FOHGC. The Council are therefore holding an official enquiry. As a result there has been reduced activity of the FOHGC during April and May in HGC.

Here’s a summary of the reduced activity of the FOHGC during those two months.

April

The FOHGC received a couple of donations of £100 from Facebook members. This money was to purchase plants etc. The FOHGC also purchased a third Silver Birch and planted this, along with a mix of 15 hazel, crab apple and rowan trees donated by the Woodland Trust.

Since 2019 the FOHGC have planted well in excess of 300 native trees on the site.

The buzzard appeared to have left for a while but has since been sighted several times.

Pete Lowden continues to maintain the website. Helen Bovill’s monthly nature posts have been received enthusiastically.

Hull Civic Society do not contribute any funding to the FOHGC and now no longer pay the insurance. As a result the FOHGC have acquired their own insurance at a cost of £230 per annum.

Site visit

After the recent complaint to the Council, Andrew Wilson, Jennifer Woollin and Mike Tindall, council officers, met with the representatives from the FOHGC on site for a positive meeting. The notes of this meeting were distributed separately. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC

As agreed with Jennifer Woollin, the volunteers have planted the wildflower meadow with the special EW1 seeds recommended by Jennifer. We have however been prevented from planting the butterfly garden until the review is complete. A further planting will now have to take place in the autumn. As a result, and at the request of Andrew Wilson, Open Spaces manager, the wildflowers that were for the Butterfly Garden have now been planted outside the site on the Thorseby Street cut through.

Accounts

The accounts show that we have a balance of £4,705.25, although the monies for the insurance are not deducted as yet from that figure.

The volunteers re-erected the broken fence at the rear of the Princes Avenue shops. Sadly, it looks like more rubbish is beginning to pile up at the shop’s rear.

Several species of butterfly have been noted in the cemetery by Helen Bovill, particularly on the Spring Bank West frontage.

Many bird species, including blue tits, great tits, tree creepers, chaffinches and goldcrests have been seen in the cemetery this month. A tawny owl has been seen on the site. It has occupied one of the owl boxes erected by the group. We believe it mated and two owlets were seen in April in this box. They now appeared to have fledged. Wonderful Wildlife

The reduction of the activities of the volunteers has seen an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour. This includes a fire, theft of litter bins and a proliferation of rubbish dumped. There have been an increase of people who have volunteered to litter pick on the site.

May

A few more donations were received from Facebook members.

Research was undertaken on several of the vases/urns that were recovered from the drain shaft in the Quakers section. Particularly the one of Ronnie Jackson who was lost on the St Romanus in 1968. Andy Lister has repaired the vase and mounted it on an oak plinth. It will be presented to Ronnie’s step brother during the next couple of weeks.

An English oak was donated from a teacher at Thoresby Primary. It was planted in the Workhouse Memorial area.

The two areas near the Thoresby Street cut through were tidied and the drains were cleared.

12 headstones that failed the Safety push test were laid flat by the Council.

The Quaker’s committee have asked the volunteers to help improve their burial section.

Conclusion

That’s a summary of the activities the FOHGC have done over the last two months. Not bad is it?

 

Next Month

by Pete Lowdenin Events, Facebook Archive, General, History, News, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment on Next Month

Hi,

Next month on the site there will be the conclusion of the story of the creation of Hull General Cemetery. This story leads from witnessing the terrible scenes that burials in the churchyards of Hull in the early 1840s often displayed. It ends after the first burial in the first cemetery that the town ever possessed and the official opening of the site. I hope you enjoy it. The Creation of Hull General Cemetery: Part One 

There will be further articles from Bill Longbone’s posts on our sister sire; Friends of Hull General Cemetery As you know these initially featured on the Facebook. By placing them on this site the Facebook Archive will become a repository of research and knowledge for future students of the subject and site.

Helen Bovill will be providing more detailed and beautiful images and information on the wildlife that lives in Hull General Cemetery during the summer months. Wonderful Wildlife

Stone masons

There will also be the long trailed story of the master masons of the Cemetery’s monumental business. This business was often the sole profitable part of the Company’s business. I was hopeful that I could have used it this month. However I believe that as I am now able to use Bill’s extensively researched Facebook’s articles I should do that. I also believed that these items of Bill’s needed preserving by placing them on this site.

So the story of the master masons has been held over for June’s newsletter.

And of course there will be the usual Anniversary and News items. The anniversary item will move this time from Victorian times into the recent past. It will examine the final board meeting of the the Cemetery Company.

The news item is really dependent upon what happens over the period. One of the things that I hope to touch upon is the issue around the Council’s  request to stop working. It’s hoped that we may be able to report back on a positive decision of the Hull City Council for the FOHGC.

However we are committed to work with any decision that the Council arrives at. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC