St Chad's Church, Far Headingley

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  • About us
    • Welcome message
    • Meet the team
    • St Chad’s Church – history and architecture
      • The Baptistery
      • The Bell Tower
      • The East Window
      • Chancel, Choir and Nave
      • The Organ at St. Chad’s
      • The Lady Chapel / Chapel of St. Oswald
      • The Reredos
      • St. Oswald’s Church
      • Architectural images
    • St Chad’s Parish Centre
    • Parish Magazine
    • Our church as venue
    • Our Mission Partners
    • Churches Together in Headingley
    • Parochial Church Council (PCC)
  • Services & events
    • Regular services
    • Baptisms at St Chad’s
    • Weddings at St Chad’s
    • Funerals at St Chad’s
    • Worship on the Edge
  • Church groups
    • Bible Reading
    • Bell Ringing
    • Church Choir
    • Mothers’ Union
    • Eco St Chad’s
      • The Green Team
      • Churchyard as wildlife haven
      • Community Churchyard Work Parties
      • Gallery, Eco St Chad’s
    • ‘…another time’
    • Groups & activities – contact list
  • Community groups
    • Parent-led Toddler Group
    • Tennis Club
    • Cricket Club
    • Groups & activities – contact list
  • Children & young people
    • Sunday Club Groups
    • Brownies, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts & Explorers
    • Groups & activities – contact list
  • Giving
    • Giving – why is it important?
    • Make a donation
    • St Chad’s charitable giving
    • Volunteering opportunities
  • Safeguarding
  • Contact us
    • Enquiry
    • How to find us
    • Meet the team
    • Groups & activities – contact list

Churchyard as wildlife haven

Image shows one of the clusters of bat boxes in the churchyard. Unlike bird boxes, bat boxes should be grouped, the boxes facing in different directions. The bats use them for roosting between their main feeding times of dawn and dusk. We have two species of Pipistrelle and also Noctule bats feeding in the churchyard.

St Chad’s churchyard (approximately three hectares) surrounds the Victorian church dedicated in 1868. It is an valuable wildlife haven, as in earlier times, the land was used by Ivy House Farm (situated on the site of the present Parish Centre) for hay meadows and grazing. The ground has never been treated with chemicals (herbicides, fungicides or artificial fertilisers). Seventeen years ago, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Churchyard Officer gave us valuable advice on maintaining the land for the benefit of wildlife, whilst always remembering its primary purpose as a resting place for the deceased. A highlight of this visit was the discovery of traditional Yorkshire hay meadow grasses, such as sweet vernal, which gives hay its distinctive aroma. We keep a small section of the grass in front of the church as a mini hay meadow, with a traditional cutting regime. Gradually wild flowers are colonising this area.

There are a variety of habitats within the churchyard. It benefits from being bordered to the west by Church Wood and within the curtilage there are mature trees, hedges, bushes, and a border of flowering plants providing pollen and nectar “a supermarket” for insects. The grass is cut at different lengths – for the benefit of “brown” butterflies and to encourage wild flowers which grow in shorter sward. Bumble bees nest in old mouse and vole holes. We have seven bird boxes which are monitored and cleaned annually and three clusters of bat boxes. Hedgehog hibernation homes, made by the Church Youth Group are tucked into the hedge bottoms. Close to the Garden of Rest we have a mini-beast hotel, built by a group of young people on a “Work Experience” day. In the Garden of Rest we encourage relatives to plant spring-flowering bulbs which provide pollen and nectar for early-flying spring insects such as queen bumble bees. Two years ago, a group from Santander Bank (on a Community Day) planted up a border of shrubs to provide nectar-rich flowers and autumn berries.

Lady’s Smock or Cuckoo Flower can be found in the “new” churchyard in late spring. It is the food plant for the caterpillars of the Orange Tip butterfly. These plants are “flagged” to prevent them being mown out.

We keep records of our wildlife – if we don’t know what we have, how can we conserve it? The bird list (which includes winter visitors and summer migrants) now stands at forty five species, the most recent being a pair of Hobbys. It is interesting to note that red kites and buzzards are frequently seen – unheard of fifteen years ago. The butterfly list is a remarkable thirteen species. We encourage the orange-tips by “flagging” specimens of cuckoo flower. This prevents the plants on which the female butterfly lays eggs, from being mown out.

The Mid-Yorkshire Fungus Group makes an annual visit in the autumn. We are particularly proud of our Pink Waxcap or ballerina fungus, which is a UK biodiversity indicator species of unimproved grassland.

The churchyard is an “Urban Pollinators” survey site, part of a nationwide project. Leeds University uses the churchyard as an outdoor classroom and for research projects. We hold regular events for children and adults. In June 2015, as part of “Cherishing Churchyards” week, we offered guided walks including one specifically on the geology of the stones used in the construction of the church and some of the churchyard memorials.

We also hold monthly Community Work Parties to help with maintenance. Local residents, who value tranquillity in the midst of suburbia, but may not be regular worshippers in the church, join members of the congregation on a variety of tasks.

We were fortunate in obtaining grants for two Interpretive Boards and also a professionally printed leaflet “A Walk Round St Chad’s Churchyard” and a more detailed booklet “St. Chad’s Church Far Headingley, A Geological Trail“. These have been distributed to local schools, libraries and community venues and are available at the back of church and in the Parish Office. We aim to encourage everyone to enjoy this remarkable place.

Visit our Eco St Chad’s Gallery for more images.

Pink Waxcup
Orange Tip butterfly

Filed Under: Groups & activities

The Green Team

In 2000 St Chad’s Green Team started promoting awareness of our responsibilities towards the environment and sustainability of planet earth. Each year we hold at least one special service (usually in the summer) which focusses on an aspect of our responsibilities to the environment. There is a recycling box in the Welcome Porch of the church for used reading glasses, mobile phones, batteries, computer cartridges and postage stamps. The churchyard is maintained for the benefit of wildlife, whilst always remembering its prime purpose as a resting place for the deceased. (see Churchyard as wildlife haven for further details).

Find out about recycling and reusing opportunities across Leeds here.

Read about our most recent recognition award from the Church Times here.

The following list shows some of our achievements and publicity:

  • 2003 (July) Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Living Churchyard Award Runner Up
  • 2005 (October) First Eco-congregation Award
  • 2006 (April) Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Jubilee event held St Chad’s
  • 2006 BBC “Springwatch” filmed & broadcast short sequence in the churchyard
  • 2007 Green Apple Award (Bronze) for Charity & Community Project.
  • 2007 Church Times Green Awards “Biodiversity” category Winner
  • 2008 June featured in The Dalesman magazine
  • 2008 Leeds City Council “Community & City Pride” Awards. Recycling Project of the Year Runner Up
  • 2009 Leeds City Council “Community & City Pride” Award
  • 2008 Interpretive Boards erected in churchyard
  • 2008 Second Eco-congregation Award
  • 2012 Third Eco-congregation Award
  • 2013 Yorkshire Post Environment Awards Short-listed for Community Award
  • 2014 (May) “A Walk Round St Chad’s churchyard, Far Headingley” published professionally
  • 2014 (December) St Chad’s Churchyard featured in British Wildlife Journal
  • 2015 “St Chad’s Church Far Headingley Geological Trail” published professionally
  • 2015 Yorkshire Post Environment Awards Winner Community category
  • 2016 (June) Churchyard featured in the Yorkshire Post Magazine during ‘Celebrating Churchyards Week’
  • 2016 Eco Church Silver Award (The Eco Church Award, launched in February 2016, replaces the Eco Congregation scheme, and is run by A Rocha UK, a Christian charity working for the protection and restoration of the natural world). Read more here
  • 2017 Green Champions Award, The Church Times. Read more here
Bishop Paul with Revd Tom Lusty and some members of the St Chad’s Green Team – (left to right) Alan Griggs, Mary Henderson, Katie Fabri, Helen Cruickshank, and Mike Willison, receiving their 2016 Eco Church Silver Award.
Some members of St Chad’s Green Team receiving the Yorkshire Post Environment Award in the Community Category from Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party in July 2015

Filed Under: Groups & activities

Browse our site

  • About us
    • Welcome message
    • Meet the team
    • St Chad’s Church – history and architecture
    • St Chad’s Parish Centre
    • Parish Magazine
    • Our church as venue
    • Our Mission Partners
      • News from the Marshalls in Malta
    • Parochial Church Council (PCC)
      • PCC Committee Members
  • Services & events
    • St Chad’s January Services
    • Weddings at St Chad’s
    • Regular services
    • Baptisms at St Chad’s
    • Funerals at St Chad’s
    • Worship on the Edge
  • Church groups
  • Community groups
  • Children & young people
    • Brownies, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts & Explorers
    • Sunday Club Groups
  • Giving
    • Giving – why is it important?
    • Make a donation
    • St Chad’s charitable giving
    • Volunteering opportunities
  • Eco St Chad’s
  • Groups & activities – contact list
  • Contact us
    • Enquiry
    • How to find us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Safeguarding

                    Thought for the Month

“Lord God of surprises, we thank you that you know each one of us

and you call us to humble obedience to your will.

Give us that readiness to hear, accept and follow

your purposes for our lives. Amen”

A prayer by Archbishop John Sentamu

 

CONTACT DETAILS

St Chad’s Church
Otley Road, Far Headingley, Leeds LS16 5JT

Parish Office Tel: 07434 660 785
Email: office@stchads.co.uk

Parish Office opening hours:
Monday 9am – 12 noon
Tuesday 9am – 12 noon
CLOSED WEDNESDAY
Thursday 9am – 12 noon
Friday 9am – 12 noon

Parish Centre Bookings Tel: 0113 230 7665  Email stchadspc@btinternet.com
Website www.stchadsparishcentre.org

 

MORE NEWS …

Church Times Green Church Award Winners!

We were so proud to find out that St Chad's had won the Green Futures Award at the recent Church Times Green Church Awards.  Find out more here.

Links

St Michael's Church, Headingley

Church of England, Diocese of Leeds

Leeds Church Institute

A Rocha

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