Rectory Lane Cemetery, Three Close Lane, Berkhamsted HP4 2DH
www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk | | | The summer has been so busy with special events and visitors that we've had to do a combined June/July ebulletin to have any chance of getting it to you before August!
People have been enjoying the cool shade of the mature trees in the cemetery, for picnics, relaxing with friends and finding respite from the heat with their babies and children - always lovely to see this community space being used in this way.
The grass is brown but the grave gardens are still varied and beautiful - with many thanks to all those who are watering regularly with a can, now that the hose is no longer possible. | |  | | With the drought continuing and cool places at a premium, why not pop into the Cemetery and enjoy its shade-giving trees and, if you walk up to the middle or top sections, a breeze and a view? | | | A brilliantly buzzy time was had by everyone at June's Great Big Nature Hunt! More than 30 families came along to our free event, part of Berkhamsted's Great Big Green Week and supported by Berkhamsted Town Council. We are very grateful to the tree, amphibia, bug, butterfly and bee experts who gave up their time to share all the wildlife in the cemetery. This is why we planted native hedging, installed ponds and keep the grass long in the upper cemetery - to give wildlife a vital habitat to flourish in, and to enable children to explore and learn. Our event featured in the Diocese of St Albans news. | | June is not a great time of year for seeing butterflies as many are in the egg and caterpillar stage. However, at the very beginning of July our butterfly recorder reported: 'What an amazing wildlife haven you have created!! I could hardly count the number of butterflies on the wing there yesterday afternoon, and I don't think I've ever seen so many Ringlets in one place: Meadow Brown 10, Marbled White 10, Ringlet 45, Small White 12, Peacock 1, Gatekeeper 10, Small Skipper 8, Painted Lady 1, Holly Blue 1, 6 Spot Burnet 1, Box moth 1. It's amazing the difference some long grass makes!!'
At 11.00 on 1st August she will be doing an official Big Butterfly Count to add to the country's records - come along if you want to join in! Or do your own, using the resources freely available here | | Swing Gate School are regular users of the cemetery
In June their Hedgehogs and Rabbits classes (Year 1) visited, to consolidate their Science and English learning about bugs. They were so delighted to explore and spot mosquito larvae, a variety of snails, slugs, Cinnabar moths, Yellow Brimstone, Tortoise Shell and Red Admiral butterflies, centipedes, millipedes, bumble bees and White-tailed bees, to name but a few!
The teacher said, 'It is such an amazing place to stop and notice nature and give them an opportunity to compare and contrast with nature within our own grounds at Swing Gate.' |  | | | Our honeybees and beekeeper have been busy, harvesting delicious Spring honey. This is available to purchase - get in touch if you'd like a little pot of golden sweetness! | | | As well as coming along to our events, local children come and help... 2nd Berkhamsted Brownies visited and planted up a beautiful double grave, the resting place of the four Bartlett sisters, who all lived together long into old age. Follow the link to read about them. | | | Boys from Berkhamsted School's Swift House visited as part of their annual service day, clearing and planting up graves with lots of lovely plants on a very hot day. With more than 30 students, it was a bit of a whirlwind and after they had left a fox came to survey their work! | | | 11 members and 2 young leaders of 1st Gossams End Scouts provided some help one evening, watering, bagging up our compost for other gardeners to use and also clearing weeds from along the exterior of our Three Close Lane wall - in preparation for the visits from the RHS judges for Berkhamsted in Bloom - scheduled a few days later. | | We were delighted to be part of the inaugural Berkhamsted in Bloom campaign - entering the Cemetery as the Community Project. We showed the RHS judges around the Cemetery, as well as 10 other gardens and green spaces around the town (shown on the map below).
It was great to have so many volunteers on site to welcome us when we arrived - the very epitome of community! |  | | | Other gardens visited: Station Road, Station Gardens, Greene Field Corner, Millennium Garden, Lime Tree Walk, Kings Road Wildflower Meadow, Everyone Active Community Garden, St Peter's Church garden, Swing Gate School and Sunnyside Activity Centre. | | | It was a brilliant day, and the judges were left in no doubt of the gardeners' passion for their green spaces and the strong community spirit within the town. The award ceremony is in late September, when we will learn what the judges made of their visit! | | The day after the Berkhamsted in Bloom visit we went to accept our Green Flag Award 2026/27 at a Herts Park celebration of 30 years' of the Green Flag programme in Hertfordshire.
It was a very good day with some interesting speakers, particularly around the huge benefits of nature for our mental wellbeing, physical health, social connection, community cohesion and sense of belonging - plus the vital importance of these green spaces being designed and managed for all, with so many people in the UK living with either visible or invisible access issues: 340,000 blind or partially sighted, 4.3 million using a walking aid, 1.3 million a wheelchair, 18 million with hearing loss, 700,000 with autism, 2.4 million with food allergies, 850,00 living with dementia and so on.
We look forward to the feedback from our 'mystery shopper' judge. |  | | Just correcting a misapprehension...!
Cemetery visitors are surprised to learn that we maintain this beautiful place with a very small group of regular volunteers and no guaranteed income. We do need more people and more donations - please help by contacting team@rectorylanecemetery.org.uk to offer your time or donating what you can via this link Many, many thanks! | | | Rectory Lane Cemetery is a beautiful and accessible place for commemmoration, with a dedicated garden for the interment of ashes. Do think of the Cemetery when considering loved ones you have lost.
To date we have interred ashes for 15 local families and have engraved over 144 commemmorative tiles.
For more information, follow this link: https://www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk/sustain/memorialising/ | | | Who's buried here?
Over 7,000 people are buried here and our dedicated small team of volunteer genealogists are painstakingly researching each person. The results are then uploaded to our website where everyone can read them. Sometimes relatives give us information and photographs to include, but often we are able to add to what they knew about their own family members! | | | FREDERICK HOWARD (1852 - 1918) and ELIZA BASSIL HOWARD (1862 - 1927) An auctioneer and furniture dealer who became the town's postmaster, together with his wife.
For more information, follow this link | | | Can you help us?
Providing the service of ashes interment is just one way in which we are keeping the cemetery current for the local community. It's also a way of raising funds for the continuing maintenance of this space as we ask for a donation, in lieu of a fee, which would be payable to any commercial cemetery.
Finding the money necessary to pay contractors, our part-time ranger, repair and replace machinery, repair and deal with any damage to the three-acre site is an ongoing challenge for the charity.
If you'd like to help raise money to keep this award-winning community asset going - either personally, or through any association or organisation you're part of, please do get in touch. There are many ways we can collaborate or facilitate sponsorship of different aspects of the project.
Thank you. | | | | | |
