A sea of gravestones
etched with the names of lost loved ones might not be what you would
picture when you imagine a nature reserve.
But Manchester City Council plans to give Southern Cemetery
in south Manchester, which is the largest cemetery in the UK, that
official title.
According to
Natural England,
it will be one of just 10 graveyard nature reserves in England. And it
is part of a bigger plan in Manchester to put cemeteries "on the map"
for nature-loving urbanites.
So just how wild can a burial ground be?
David Barlow, who leads the environmental strategy team for the local authority, says cemeteries are "hidden gems".
"They're lovely places for wildlife," he told the BBC.
Mr Barlow and his council colleagues have the power to "officially designate" an area a nature reserve.
But to have the support of Natural England, the government
body that sets the definition of a national nature reserve, they must
demonstrate that the proposed site is "special" in terms of the flora
and fauna it harbours, and that the council is working to protect it.
This means marrying up nature conservation with running a working cemetery, which can be a challenge.
As Mr Barlow explained: "People don't want a messy, overgrown grave for a loved one."
So the council has set out to strike a balance between biodiversity and burial site.
In some of the very old areas of the cemetery where few
people now visit, they have stopped mowing the grass around the
headstones to encourage wild flowers to grow.
"We still cut the grass in parts of these areas to create pathways and access to graves," explained a council spokesperson.
"[And] we continue to cut the grass on a regular basis in the areas where graves are visited regularly.
"People can still place flowers at the headstones of every grave."
As Mandy Elford from the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit
explained, the "more natural areas", where the grass has been left to
grow already contain a variety of wild flowers, including bluebells,
lesser celandine, cuckoo flower, common sorrel and common dog violet.
"Southern Cemetery has also just introduced a meadow burial
site and intend to create a wildflower meadow in this area," she said.
The council has also been working with local wildlife groups
to survey the site's wildlife. Ultimately, they hope to organise bird or
bat-watching tours, to show local people that the graveyard is a space they can visit and enjoy.
She has found three of the UK's 18 bat species in the cemetery.
"As well as common pipistrelles, we've recorded soprano
pipistrelles and noctule bats, which are the UK's largest species," she
told the BBC.
She explained that the
flying mammals hunt for insects among the cemetery's avenues of mature deciduous trees.
"The cemetery provides an insect-rich habitat in a largely
urban area which is a great haven for feeding bats along with some
large, old trees which could support bat roosts," she said.
Graveyard safari
Are natural burials a 'greener' option?
The aim of what is known as natural burial is for the deceased
to enter the ecosystem with as little impact on the environment as
possible. The sites are also kept relatively wild to encourage wildlife.
"Green burial", as it is also known, is becoming increasingly
popular. The UK's first natural burial site opened near Carlisle in
1993, and since then more than 260 sites have opened across the UK.
One defining feature of this type of burial is the unusual
materials that the coffins are made from, including cardboard, wood and
willow.
Permanent grave markers, made from stone or granite are not
permitted on these sites. Instead, some families choose to plant trees
to mark a grave. But many graves are left completely unmarked.
Advocates claim that witnessing the passing of the seasons
can actually help mourners with the grieving process. Prof Douglas
Davies, co-author of a recently published book on natural burials says
that families can also find comfort in giving a loved one the "green
burial" they had wished for. "Few speak of a cemetery grave as 'what she
always wanted'," he told the BBC.
But its hidden wild side really comes to life in the evening.
During her late night bat walks in the burial ground, Ms
Sefton has encountered tawny owls and foxes, as well as the three
species of bat that were the focus of her work.
This nocturnal activity is not surprising, according to urban ecologist Prof Philip James from Salford University.
"Cemeteries were created by enclosing countryside often contain species-rich grassland, heathland, and woodland," he said.
"[These are] habitats that have disappeared elsewhere in the
city as other land around the cemetery has been built on for housing or
business."
Crucially, they are also quiet places, leaving wildlife to roam largely undisturbed.
"You find badgers - which cause problems in some cemeteries by digging up the graves," Prof James told the BBC.
"There are often foxes, deer, bats, all the small mammals,
[including] shrews and voles, along with a variety of birds nesting the
old trees can all be found."
Any unmown grass, patches of which are being left by cemetery management, can be a haven for insects and spiders.
And while native plants such as bluebells grow in the
woodland, Prof James says that some "interesting communities of
introduced plants [have been] brought in to the cemetery by families".
"You sometimes find climbing roses or buddleia that people have planted at their loved ones' graves," he added.
A big part of the project is addressing the challenge of
giving people access to quiet, natural spaces that the council says can
improve people's quality of life. This is a particular priority for a
city with a post-industrial landscape.
"We have the legacy of the industrial revolution; We're the first industrial city," said Mr Barlow.
"So having spaces for nature is really important for us."
Prof James added that, because the cemetery land was
encapsulated in the 1870s, it contains truly old habitats - the remnants
of what the countryside was like in those days.
"Urban habitats are, in many places, can be more diverse than
the countryside, which is dominated by agriculture," he told the BBC.
"Here we have real diversity."
