St Luke’s Church Great Crosby
Grounds Project

“to create a place of beauty and a haven for people and wildlife”

1 In the beginning

In October 2006, British Trust for Conservation Volunteers held a workshop in the grounds of St Luke’s to discuss how church grounds could be managed in a way that was more sensitive to the environment. As we walked around the church grounds we began to see opportunities for change.

Identifying areas of our grounds which we could manage differently

We were encouraged to apply for a grant as part of Breathing Places, a joint initiative of the BBC and National Lottery. One question stopped us in our tracks – how do you know your community wants this project?

We made contact with the local traders, St Luke’s junior school, the Rotary Club, St Luke’s history group, a sheltered housing complex, the North Merseyside Biodiversity Manager … and many others. We also found support from 100 patrons of Crossroads, an ecumenical café in our church grounds, including someone from Mencap who simply wrote: ‘I love gardening’. We saw how interested people were in what we were thinking of doing, and we began to look at our church grounds in a whole new way – instead of the grounds being a liability and a maintenance burden, we saw the opportunity to actively manage them for wildlife and as a resource for the local community.

We agreed a vision for our grounds: to create a place of beauty and a haven for people and wildlife.

The deadline for grant applications was December 2006, and winners would be announced in May 2007. But such was the enthusiasm generated by putting the bid together, and with support from Operation Eden and our church council, we made a start in January 2007

St Luke’s school children planting ornamental hedging in the front graveyard

Crosby High pupils planting along the boundary with The Bypass

St Luke’s pupils planted shrubs along the boundaries of the front graveyard, and in February pupils from Crosby High School and friends from Mencap planted up the boundary with The Bypass. This was followed in March by a wildlife activity morning when we planted a butterfly garden, made bird boxes and feeders and organised a nature trail around the grounds.

Butterfly garden being planted during our 2007 wildlife activity morning

next page: 2 The Project
Index and Introduction

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This page was last modified on 8 August 2008.