Life Among the Dead

 I see the dear old Church of England, in the person of the Bishop of Norwich, is calling for the 'rewilding' of churchyards, in the interests of 'biodiversity'. Well, I don't know where the Bishop has been these past few decades, but the kind of measures he recommends – maintaining 'wild' areas in such a way as to encourage a wide range of wildlife – have been practised in a great many churchyards for some years. In many places this is done well, in others not so well (the key being to mow two or three times a year at the right times). Left to itself, land is very unlikely to 'rewild' in a way that encourages biodiversity, but will rather turn into unattractive and inhospitable scrub, dominated by the most thuggishly invasive plant species. The romantic idea that all will be well if you just let Nature take over is delusional, as is the idea that planting trees in quantity is bound to be a Good Thing (they have to be the right trees, properly sourced, in the right place and in appropriate numbers). There is more on the subject of nature in churchyards in This Book, and I also recommend this one, which I reviewed a while back. 
   As it happens, I had early experience of a rewilded (albeit involuntarily rewilded) churchyard when I first moved to the erstwhile Suburban Demiparadise. The extensive churchyard was in an advanced state of neglect, well on its way to becoming a miniature version of the old Highgate cemetery, which in those days was an all but impenetrable jungle. The state of the churchyard reflected the state of the parish, where the eccentric, ultra-High-Church incumbent had driven away virtually all his flock – no mean feat in the days when most people still went to church.  Anyway, that overgrown graveyard made a great wild playground, with a slight edge of danger (always welcome), for us children, but it was not to last: the churchyard was in due course tamed, kept neatly mowed, then gradually maintained more loosely, so that parts of it indeed became flourishing little hubs of biodiversity where I had many a happy butterfly encounter. And now I live in Lichfield, where the great churchyard of St Michael's (where Larkins and Johnsons lie) is a perfect mix of functioning cemetery and carefully managed nature reserve. The Bishop of Norwich would surely approve.