Rectory Lane Cemetery, Three Close Lane, Berkhamsted HP4 2DH
www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk
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Nearly into May and the weather has often felt like February this month. However, for our Easter Discover Trail at the end of March the sun came out and the cemetery was a lovely place to be.
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EASTER DISCOVERY TRAIL
Thank you to all those who came - and those who helped...
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We had a very successful Easter Discovery Trail, with around 150 families coming along on the day. We are grateful to all the volunteers who put up gazebos, welcomed the families to the event, guided at their different locations and gave them fascinating information, or served refreshments - this last task included our two Duke of Edinburgh students, with their mothers, who were concluding their volunteering time on the project.
As in 2022, visitors were given the beautifully illustrated easy-to-follow clue cards designed by Lizzie Martell, to help them discover all the locations. And then they were rewarded by little chocolate eggs at the end. We'd like to thank Berkhamsted Town Council who supported the event financially and local food shops, mainly Waitrose, who donated a lot of the eggs. We did have to go out and buy more on the day though as more and more families turned up - right up until 1pm when the event was scheduled to finish!
Great feedback on the day including:
- Loved hearing more about the history of the cemetery and Berkhamsted. The children loved exploring too! Thank you
- Absolutely wonderful! Full of stories! Thank you so much to everyone who made it happen – please do it again!
- It was wonderful. Thank you for the facts.
- Thank you very much – full of interesting facts and stories. Very lucky to have this nearby.
- Excellent Easter Hunt! Really enjoyed learning lots of new facts about the monkey tree and all the history of the graveyard! So much fun for the kids too. Thank you!
- Thank you very much for looking after us so well on Saturday. The Easter Trail was well organised and the clues and information given by your band of volunteers enjoyable not just for the children but for the parents and grandparents too!
- What a lovely way to learn about the history of the cemetery – we both (42 & 6 years) enjoyed it very much. Thank you to all!
- Excellent – as all your events are! 😊
- Great fun – lots of treats and fun
- Wonderfully laid out and very well ‘marshalled’ and organised – great addition of tea and coffee and the biscuits. Thank you
Here are a few photos from the day - lots of lovely bunny ears around!
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A NATURE TRAIL - A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Celebrating Great Big Green Week in June
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In June we will be hosting a rather different discovery trail - to tie in with Berkhamsted's Great Big Green Week: our Great Big Nature Hunt! With interactive resources to help with identification and guides on hand to share their knowledge we hope it will be a great morning of discovering our trees and wildflowers and what is living in our grasses, ponds, flowerbeds and on our gravestones.
More information, including a link to purchase Early Bird tickets (just for children aged 3 and up, toddlers and adults are free) will be shared in our May ebulletin, but please make a note in your diary of the date :)
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A HISTORICAL TRAIL - FOR SCHOOLS
A visit from Thomas Coram pupils and teachers
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Visit of Thomas Coram Year 5 children
We were pleased to host Thomas Coram's current three Year 5 classes in three sessions on one day. As in previous years, the children were being History Detectives, learning how to piece together information from different sources to get a greater understanding of historical events and people.
Using the notes written by our former education volunteer lead (who has now moved away) we were able to explore together how cemeteries can be one of these sources of information - and what graves can and cannot tell us.
We focussed on four graves: William Cooper (of Sheep Dip fame), Rupert Atkinson (decorated WW1 pilot), Sister Hannah Cottingham (WW1 nurse) and George Blincow (station master handling the comings and goings of the Officers of the Inns of Court and their horses, here for training before going to the front). There were some great conversations and hypotheses about the people's lives (and deaths) and then the children were going back to their classroom where they would have access to documents which our genealogy volunteer lead had already provided to their teachers.
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Our initiatives to contribute towards improving the biodiversity of the town - by planting native hedging, installing small ponds, bringing in wildflowers where previously only coarse grasses grew - were inspired by Stephen Lings, field naturalist and passionate wildlife advocate.
He first came to the Cemetery to contribute to our August 2021 Bonkers About Bees event, giving generously of his time and expertise. He was the County Recorder for Hymenoptera (a large order of insects comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants) and was able to identify a tiny insect from a yard away and share fascinating facts about it. He believed strongly in the power of local groups to make a difference and was immediately struck by the potential of the Cemetery to be a wildlife haven, and took a small group of us to see Halsey Fields in Hemel Hempstead - another project he was passionate about.
He was also a very successful commercial illustrator, much of it to do with nature, but also we were suprised to learn, of some editions of Thomas the Tank Engine and Farthing Wood, amongst other publications.
Since we've known Steve he has battled severe bad health with enormous stoicism and optimism. He has not been able to be physically with us contributing as he would have liked, but his influence was hugely enabling and inspiring.
Steve died this month. His last act for the project? To source and buy us Red Bartsia Seed 'rarer than hen's teeth', with which we can combat our coarse grasses.
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Spring
Spring is a time of great renewal.
The grasp of winter no longer holds us
and nature reveals incredible beauty.
We see budding leaves and the shy
unfurling of the first flowers.
Rain storms that showcase rainbows
and the glowing warmth of the sun.
Bees buzz with renewed vigour
and nature's song is heard once again in
the early morning hours.
Stephen Lings
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Just a reminder that we can now inter ashes in the area just below the garden - which is bordered by hebe, lavender, salix and hellebore plants. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more about this: team@rectorylanecemetery.org.uk
The glass tiles are gradually multiplying as more and more people want to commemorate loved ones with their chosen texts. If you want to do the same, follow this link to find out how straightforward it is.
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We don't have any photographs of the weekly and monthly work parties - because we're too busy working - but there is a lot of mowing, strimming, weeding, seeding, planting, oiling of seats and occasional dealing with graffiti going on - which keeps the cemetery a beautiful and well-cared-for space for the community.
We always welcome more people - our weekly work parties particularly, which run from 2pm to 4pm, concluding with a cup of tea and a biscuit (or sometimes home-made cake) on the decking outside the Retreat - a lovely place to look out from.
If you can spare the odd two hours on a Wednesday afternoon do get in touch, or come along and meet us.
Or you might like to adopt a grave and plant that up - that can happen any time to suit you. It's a lovely task to do, particularly at this time of year.
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE MONTH
Thomas James Semper Rowland
Secondary school teacher, author and illustrator of many books for 'Lively Youngsters' including 'Wild Things for Lively Youngsters' and 'Outdoor Things for Lively Youngsters'.
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To find out more about is life with his American wife, follow this link to his biography, researched by one of our volunteer genealogy team We are very grateful to our genealogy volunteers, their research shows the myriad lives and experience of those buried in our cemetery.
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The future of the cemetery is entirely dependent upon donations - of time and money. Please help to keep the community space going for future generations to enjoy. If you'd like to make a donation towards the upkeep of the space it's simple and quick to do via this link, and will make such a huge difference.
https://www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk/sustain/support/donate/
Thank you
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