Earth to Earth: A Natural History of Churchyards

by Stefan Buczacki, Felicity Price-Smith (Illustrator)

Few spaces are as enchanting and romantic—with a touch of the tantalizingly morbid—as an churchyard.  From the earliest pagan sites to modern urban cemeteries, these burial grounds have always enjoyed a sacred, protected status. Their preservation, and their removal from the day-to-day hubbub of life, have led them to become tranquil oases in which wildlife can flourish—a microcosm of the natural habitat that has long since disappeared from their surroundings.
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In Earth to A Natural History of Churchyards , leading horticulturalist expert Stefan Buczacki reveals the many wild animals and plants that thrive among the headstones, from the graveyard beetle to the mighty yew. He also explores the history of churchyards and the landscape, and he explains what can be done to conserve them for future generations. Accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations and selected quotations, this beautiful gift book reveals the wonderful natural secrets that can be found in God’s Acre.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

160 pages, Hardcover

Published August 15, 2018

Reviews

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earth to Earth is a beautifully produced small book about the wildlife of graveyards in the UK, focussing on English churchyards, but also applicable to cemeteries that are not attached to churches. It's a wonderful celebration of nature in these very special greenspaces, which at the time of publication (2018) were still rarely visited, though lockdown lead a lot of people in the UK to adopt their local cemetery for their #DailyExercise.

I was particularly pleased to receive this book for Christmas, as I am currently carrying out wildlife surveys of all the council owned cemeteries in Edinburgh.

The book opens with a brief history of burial grounds in the British Isles. Enclosed churchyards first appeared around 1600 which was around the time when gravestones started to become a regular sight in burial grounds. The author then moves on to look at various aspects of the amazing wildlife that can be found in cemeteries.

England has around 10,000 Church of England churchyards, of which around 6,000 are managed specifically for wildlife. (Figures aren't given for churchyards belonging to other denominations or for unattached cemeteries.)

Enclosed cemeteries and churchyards are often wildlife havens, offering a sheltered place where nature can thrive even when urban development covers over much of the surrounding natural habitats. In Norfolk, for example, around half the populations of some of the county's rarest flowers are found in its graveyards. Insects and other invertebrates, such as spiders, are the least understood inhabitants of cemeteries, but the more charismatic wildlife depends on them. Insects mostly feed on plants, so it is important to maintain the vegetation in a churchyard, not to strip it all back in an attempt to tidy up (admittedly, this is easier in an old churchyard, a graveyard that is still regularly used for burials is much more likely to need to be kept tidy).

Churchyards also offer a wide range of miniature habitats. These habitats include gravestones, which are often colonised by an interesting array of lichens (organisms that are made up of both fungi and algae growing together), many of which are rarely found elsewhere. Many graveyards also include areas of short grass that are not treated with herbicides and so are vital habitats for waxcaps, a beautiful group of fungi, many species of which are rare in the UK. Church buildings are also often home to wildlife, including bats and peregrine falcons.

This book offers not only concise overviews of the various types of wildlife found in graveyards, but offers tips on how best to manage these special places, making the point that 'churchyard management for wildlife is principally about conservation - conserving what is there, rather than trying to create something that is not'. Headstones should be only minimally cleaned for example, to preserve the lichens that often grow on them.

The book mentions several times that graveyards are rarely disturbed, but that is changing since lockdown inspired not only daily walks in the local cemetery but a plethora of Friends Groups, some of which risk, as the book says 'well-meaning but misguided projects and enthusiastic amateurs [which]can cause more harm than good and result in a wilderness rather than a wildlife reserve.'

The book includes poetry about churchyards, drawings by Felicity Price-Smith and many photos from a variety of people including the author and illustrator.

This beautiful book is a great gift for anyone interested in the nature of churchyards and cemeteries. It's also an eye-opener for those who think that cemeteries are only places of the dead.

[Christeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in a 45 minute sitting - it is an easy read with a few facts I found interesting (where the oldest gravestone can be found, when rabbits were introduced to England...). Good if you have no experience of churchyards and are interested, but of you have visited any number of churchyards or researched any churchyard lore, most of this will be familiar.

[Little Miss Netty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as in depth as I thought it would be, lovely illustrations and photos though.

[I'mogén · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first of my holiday reads and it suficed for such a purpose. I wasn't looking for anything spectacular from this book, just a light natural history book to cool my mind, whilst in sunny Spain.
I will say I did read this just to read, and although I wasn't disappointed by it not being a riveting read (even though I had wanted to get a little more out of it, admittedly) I didn't feel those negative emotions that.. say... a fiction book would have given if the tables were turned.
This book is a beauty to look at. Not only is the dust jacket and naked cover gorgeous (the latter a vivid sunshine yellow) but the book itself is filled with lovely illustrations and photographs of the nature churchyards are able to exhibit.
I liked the added snippets of poetry and quotes from literature speckled within this because I found that it helped to highlight the wonder of the nature that can be found around graveyards.
I do wish we had more depth at times though.

Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy >(^_^)<
Gén

[Alan Jeffery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could Have Been So Much More...

To start off I just would like to state that I so wanted to give this four stars. It is informative, well written and a source of some lovely hand painted pictures. However, it’s just so short - as another reviewer noted, 45 minutes and it’s all over. I just felt that there should have been more specifics relating to certain churchyards, rather than generalisations in each chapter. It would have been also more informative to have some information and locations on the wonderful photos in this book.

I rather feel that this is a lost opportunity to discover and tell the story of the natural history of churchyards. I would love to see Stefan bring out another volume, looking at maybe some different named churchyards.

[Richard Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully adorned book full of exquisite line drawings and photographs of one of the UK's most neglected historical and aesthetic treasures; its churches and churchyards. It is a constant source of dismay that these jewels are given no state funding and the established church too often just lets them fall into a state of disrepair. Happily many are now being cultivated as sites wherein our native wildlife and flora, itself constantly under threat, can find a haven.

[Jess Botha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great starting point for anyone interested in this subject. Alongside others, I do wish there had been a bit more detail at times, but I can see why it was left out, this book chose a wide and general audience and it stuck to that, which is fair enough. The additional quotations scattered through were a nice touch, and the illustrations make this absolutely beautiful. As someone else said, it would have been nice to know where the photos were taken.

[Sachi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly magical!

I really really enjoyed this book. Who knew there could be so much life in a graveyard. The pictures complemented the words so beautifully. Such a wonderful little read.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A place for the living more than the dead. A good read but I didn't learn anything new apart from a few Latin phrases and some places to visit.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little book with a short run down on the flora and fauna in churchyards. Well written and informative. What stands out in the book has to be the wonderful photographs and watercolours.

[Tom Nir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Above average, a nice gentle read with some interesting punctuation at certain points.

[Winny Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a beautiful looking book great pictures but it doesn't really say very much tbh

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked it to be more in depth.