Sponsored by
Leeds church drafts in goats to keep grounds tidy
A Leeds church is drafting in unlikely help to maintain its grounds – a herd of goats.
St Wilfrid's Anglican church in Calverley in west Leeds has a large graveyard and grounds.
* Click here to watch latest YEP news and sport video reports.
In recent years they became badly overgrown – so much so that parishioners said the graveyard looked like "the castle in Sleeping Beauty."
* Click here for latest YEP news and sport picture slideshows.
Tree saplings and brambles were growing through the grave stones causing them to crack, and out-of-control vegetation made the graveyard unrecognisable.
Church member David Badger said: "With great help from volunteers and a small national lottery grant we were able to bring it back into shape, but we also realised that the crucial thing was maintenance, if it wasn't going to revert to its unkempt state.
* Click here to follow the YEP on Twitter.
"The solution came from a kind and sympathetic farmer in Guiseley, Andrew Emsley.
* Click here to become a fan of the YEP on Facebook.
"For an experimental period he lent us some sheep and goats and it worked so well that he now brings the sheep and goats each spring for six months and they eat the grass and nibble the new growth off the saplings which means that eventually they just die back.
"And now we've even invested in four of our own goats who are looked after by the church warden."
The introduction of the animals prompted parishioners to launch other im provemennts.
"It's been a spur to doing all sorts of other things around the church," said Mr Badger.
"We have let a wildlife meadow grow and put up bat and bird boxes. The Scouts have a wildlife corner and we've put new plants in and sectioned off an area where we grow flowers specifically for use in church.
"We've also laid out a couple of new paths. And we're thinking (if we get the permission), about turning part of the ground into an area with small allotments."
The improvement has been so marked that last year St Wilfrid's won a discretionary Yorkshire Rose Place of Worship Award in the annual Yorkshire in Bloom competition.
Mr Badger said: "We're next door to Calverley C of E School and the children, who walk through the churchyard to get to school, absolutely love seeing the animals.
"The churchyard really looks cared for now and I think the interest it has generated has raised the profile locally and helped bring some people that bit closer to the church."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
