ECO GARDENING GROUP at CHRIST CHURCH WALMSLEY

A MASSIVE THANK YOU for your COMMUNITY HELP 

Huge thanks to our Tuesday ‘ECO’ gardening group for regularly maintaining our extensive graveyard and memorial garden. We would be grateful of any additional volunteers. If you enjoy gardening and feel that this is something that you could help with, please contact Tony Foster for more information. 

And you can watch Revd Ian Hepburn taking a stroll through our graveyard with Mark Head, one of the volunteers in our church ECO gardening group, who meet every Tuesday morning up at Christ Church Walmsley between 10am – midday (unless raining heavily!!)    Please click this link to our Facebook Page. 

The FULL ‘THANK YOU’ post to VOLUNTEERS on our CHURCHYARD TIDY UP day can be accessed via THIS LINK

And remember:

 We would be grateful of any additional volunteers for our Tuesday morning gardening group. If you enjoy gardening and feel that this is something that you could help with, please contact Tony Foster for more information. Thank you.  Special thanks to all who have done and amazing job and made such a difference on our older gravestones and also near the Ashworth Gate.

Giving thanks to our Tuesday morning gardening group at Christ Church Walmsley for the amazing – and painstaking – work these volunteers are doing to clear some of the older gravestones. Well done to Paul, Jenny, Tony, Mark, Nick … and others … for their hard work and dedication

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Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for COMMUNITY HELP in JUNE …

We need help with gardening tasks, tidying and general conservation management of our graveyard, which is the second largest in the Diocese of Manchester, so there is plenty to do!

If you are interested and feel you can help IN FUTURE, please contact Tony Foster. Tel: 07527 710225 or email: conisber@btinternet.com

WRITE UP on our Graveyard Tidy Up Day: Saturday 13 June 10am-4pm:

The day dawned damp and wet, which was not a promising start for the Christ Church Graveyard Tidy Up Day on Saturday 13th June.

Undeterred, a group gathered together and after a fortifying cup of tea and piece of cake, set off to clear and tidy up various areas of the graveyard.

With fifteen people attending over the course of the day, we have tidied three flower beds, two memorial garden areas and a third started, flat gravestones cleaned of moss and other areas strimmed to make gravestones visible.

We would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who helped on the day as you have all made a noticeable difference.

 

Thank you to Tony Foster for organising this day, to the Christ Church Tuesday Gardening Group, including Jo & Nick C + Richard & Allyce for the photos … and to everyone who plays their part in helping to keep our grounds maintained.

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On 26 April 2025, the daughter of one of our lovely – more senior – parishioners posted her thanks for all the work done by the Tuesday morning volunteers:

“I came home for a visit last week and made my usual visit to the churchyard at Walmsley looking for more ancestors’ graves. This visit was marked by two fortuitous events, firstly the graves have been painstakingly cleaned so it was much easier to read the words, and secondly, I chatted to a lady who told me she had heard there was the grave of a man who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars. When I found the grave (photo attached) it turns out the man was Thomas Gray, who married an ancestor of mine, Sarah Brindle. The gravestone was provided by Joseph Slater (though I managed to miss the inscription off the photo). I assume Joseph was the then proprietor of Slaters Bleachworks. Thomas and family lived in Dunscar and he was listed as bleacher in the 1841 census. I guess Joseph must have been very proud of his employee. The inscription isn’t completely clear, I’m afraid but reads :- In memory of Thomas Gray of Dunscar who died April 19th 1853 aged 82 years. He served, 1797, in the Lancashire Fencibles in the Irish Rebellion. In 1801, in the 22nd Light Dragoons, in Egypt, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, for which he received a decoration. In 1809, in the Marines, at Flushing. In 1810 and 1811, on the coast of Spain. In 1813-1815, in the War in the United States of America. So Thomas did fight Napoleon but other wars too and saw parts of the world very few did in those days. If anyone wants to see the grave go up the church drive and take the right hand path. It’s on the right hand side just below the church (I think). What an amazing story that local man had!”

Part of our commitment to being an Eco-Church is sharing regular tips on how to be more eco-friendly in your every day lives.

Here is our monthly ‘Eco-Tip’ for May:

Say no to the mow. Mowing your lawn less and letting parts grow long saves you time and helps give nature a home. If you want to make an even bigger impact on wildlife, wait to mow your lawn or a section of it until August to support even more animals. Contribute to citizen science and get to know what (and who!) lives in your church’s green space.

Summary of 2024:

As the year draws to a close, we must congratulate our Tuesday ‘ECO’ gardening group volunteers at Christ Church Walmsley for maintaining our extensive graveyard and memorial garden, the second largest  in the whole of Manchester Diocese. Moving forwards, with new initiatives, we hope to achieve greater ‘ECO’ status. 

Thank you to Tony Foster for the photos. Ariel view by Robert Jackson & Toby Kennedy.