Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about St Giles Hill Graveyard.
What’s the Red & Blue Spray all about?
You may notice some items are sprayed red or blue. This is a core for people working in the graveyard. Red indicated it should be removed. The items are often stumps that constitute trip hazards and difficulties with mowers or strimmers, but they could also be self-seeded shrubs, brambles or other plants which do not fit in with the overall management plan. Other items may be sprayed blue indicating that they are not to be cut back or removed by maintenance teams.
Why is there a steep slope across the area?
As you walk up the central path, the avenue lined with lime trees, from the Alresford Road you will reach a slope at the top. This slope marks the boundary between the old medieval graveyard or churchyard and the Victorian section of the graveyard opened in 1870. In the lower section closest to the road you will find the seven Commonwealth War Graves memorials. In the upper section above this slope you will find the old headstones with fascinating grave art.
Why are Jam jars displayed on sticks?
At the end of the Lime Tree Avenue, at the break of slope, you will see a dead hedge that has sticks. The sticks support a variety of jars. They were found on the location. When we first started to work in the graveyard we found a lot of broken glass on the surface of the area encircled by the dead hedge. Over time around 80 bags of broken glass were removed from the surface of the area. the jars are unbroken pieces that we found. It was decided to display them. Broken glass remains so we built a dead hedge around the area for safety purposes.
Examination of the glass suggests that the jars were used by families to place flowers on the memorials. A selection of other grave goods was also found including ceramic flowers and the remains of wreaths. Most of the material is recognizably 20thC. The pile of glass appears to be the rubbish dump for used grave goods cleared from graves. Whilst the location in the centre of the graveyard seems insensitive it is strategically placed at the edge old graveyard which was disused by the turn of the 20th C.
What are the heaps of sticks and Log piles for?
In the same area as the glass, you will find a pile of deadwood that we call the Stumpery. Some people think it is going to be a bonfire. But we have a policy of no burning on the site for a couple of reasons.
- It is a burial ground and site of archaeological interest.
- Having dead wood around is good for insects and small mammals.
- Burning wood releases CO2 into the atmosphere and other particulates.
We, therefore, store dead wood in log piles, and you will see piles in various places. The dead wood furnishes a wonderful wildlife habitat, providing food and shelter for a huge number of invertebrates such as wood-boring beetles, solitary bees, and woodlice. We have, for instance, seen quite a few stag beetles that are on the red list. These in turn offer food for hedgehogs toads and mice. They also offer nesting places for hedgehogs. We know that we have a nice population of hedgehogs in the graveyard, and we have filmed them around the log pile.
Why do you have those funny fences (Dead Hedges):
Nearly all Organic material is kept on-site as would be the case in nature without human intervention. If the cut wood comprises long and thin stems, we use it to build dead hedges. The sticks are inserted at about 45 degrees to make a nice visual effect. This has several benefits.
Apart from making use of the biomass produced on site the hedges have significant benefits for wildlife. They offer good cover and nesting opportunities for small birds and mammals, and they encourage the presence of insects, an important food sources for birds and bats, as well as being important for the pollination of plants.
We have two species of cute little bee flies. These creatures buss around feeding on nectar with a long proboscis that looks a bit like it a Stinger but these creatures are perfectly harmless and just go about their business feeding. You may think it is untidy, but we doubt the other animal do.
Please let us know if you find an interesting insect in the graveyard.
Why don’t you cut the stinging nettles down?
Looking further around the graveyard you will see patches of stinging nettle. Whilst we don’t encourage them everywhere, we do keep a few stands of them in open sunny locations. This is very important for the Red admiral, Peacock, Comma, and Small tortoiseshell butterfly. These butterflies rely on stinging nettle to lay their eggs. The Caterpillar larvae later feed on the nettle. Without the nettle, there would be no butterflies.
We are there for trying to encourage more butterflies, hoverflies and the like 2 for this purpose.
Why don’t you get the Sycamore trees removed?
In the upper part of the graveyard, there are many sycamore’s. These trees are veteran trees that have been there for more than 50 years. Some of them must have been heavily cut back but not killed so they have formed multi-trunk trees. Some of them have five trunks. Our sycamores form a small wood. It is true they are non-native and self-seeded and can be a problem in native woodlands owing to their invasiveness. Studies have also shown they support fewer insect species than trees like the Oak and Birch. But they are still valuable trees. The number of insect species specializing on Sycamore (about 15 species) does match Lime and is greater than Holly.
The larvae of a number of species of moth use the leaves as a food source. These include the sycamore moth (Acronicta aceris), the maple prominent (Ptilodon cucullina), and the plumed prominent (Ptilophora plumigera). The leaves attract aphids, and also the ladybirds and hoverflies that feed on them. The aphid bloom which occurs on sycamores attracts flocks of small birds, such as bluetits and chaffinches moving through the canopy. Furthermore, almost as many lichen species develop on Sycamore as on Oak.
The flowers produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen and are attractive to bees and other insects, and the seeds are eaten by small mammals such as voles and birds. The abundant leaf litter attracts many worms and rich humus develops.
Needless to say, these trees will not last forever and will be replaced by native species.
Why do you let Ivy grow on the trees?
Many people ask why we leave Ivy on the trees because they believe the Ivy will kill the trees. Well, this is not quite true. Whilst According to the Woodland Trust Ivy does not damage trees and its presence doesn’t indicate that a tree is unhealthy, and it doesn’t create a tree-safety issue. It is not a parasitic plant and has a separate root system in the soil and so absorbs its own nutrients and water as needed.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/plants/wild-flowers/ivy/
This view is shared by other organizations, such as Butterfly Conservation and the Wildlife Trust group of which The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife trust is a member.
The Ivy itself has great value for wildlife. It is one of the latest flowing plants in England. In the early autumn when there is not much nectar sauce about for insects it is a scarce source for the red Admiral and Peacock butterflies that fly quite late in the year. The pollen is also collected by the Ivy Mining Bee that times its emergence with the blooming of the Ivy. One also sees birds such as Jay feeding on the flowers.
Ivy is also the food plant of the second brood of the Holly Blue butterfly caterpillars and without Ivy populations of the blue holly butterfly are difficult to maintain. The caterpillars of the first brood feed on the flowers of the Holly tree in spring.
In addition, the Ivy is a good cover for the nesting and roosting of small birds and bats.
Our management plan recognizes that if Ivy reaches the top of the canopy problems might result from the tree becoming top heavy or if exposed producing a sail effect that might bring the tree down in high winds. In this case, efforts will be made to remove some of the Ivy.
What is the area of railings in the upper part of the graveyard?
It has been proposed that this is the area where the St Giles Chapel once stood. This is very unlikely as the chapel had already been demolished at the end of the 16th C. These railings also enclose a relatively small area . The chapel was a much larger feature, more like a church. The original location of the chapel was probably on the highest piece of ground near the centre of the old medieval cemetery.
Why don’t we repair monuments that have broken?
We don’t repair monuments because it is against the law without getting permission from the owners of the monument.
