Rectory Lane Cemetery, Three Close Lane, Berkhamsted HP4 2DH
www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk | | | A date for your diary... Cemetery Celebratory Social confirmed
18.30 - 20.00 Thursday 3rd December
upstairs Lounge at the Mad Squirrel, Berkhamsted High Street.
They are giving us the room free of charge so please do use their bar, and if you fancy a freshly made-to-order rustic pizza while you're there (see menu on website) they'd be delighted to make it for you! We will provide nibbles.
Hope to see you there - to celebrate and thank you, as well as welcome new people | | | Some of our volunteers with the Berkhamsted in Bloom judges back in July |  | | | We held a celebration for the town-wide gardeners who participated in Berkhamsted In Bloom earlier this month, so we could share the judges' feedback and chat about plans for the future. It was very well attended and pretty buzzy - everyone was chuffed with the results: Silver Gilt in the Large Town category, Hertfordshire County Champions and Best Community Project for the Cemetery. | | | There were other, smaller, winners at the celebration too... Back in May Berkhamsted in Bloom launched a fun competition for children: to grow the tallest sunflower. With thanks to Woods Garden Centre for the seeds, Lynn Wallis for getting them going in pots and coordinating the competition and to Carole Williams of the Knit and Natter group at Berkhamsted Social Club for creating the winner's prize of crocheted sunflowers. | | | The children grew their sunflowers to 150 cms (3rd prize),156 cms (2nd prize) and 180 cms (1st prize). They all received certificates and a small bag of sweets, and the winner was too young to come to the evening celebration so her prize was hand-delivered the next morning! Definitely future Berkhamsted In Bloomers! | | | The next community event for Berkhamsted in Bloom... |  | | | Huge gratitude to Rectory Lane Cemetery's honey bees and beekeeper - and to the organiser of Berkhamsted's Artisan Market. We had a lovely time chatting to market visitors on a sunny Sunday morning and selling our delicious spring and summer honey harvests. Money from the sales goes into maintaining the cemetery. There is still some honey left, but it doesn't hang around for long, so get in touch if you'd like to buy some. | | | Our grave gardens are still looking beautiful and colourful as we slide into autumn. There are still more to be planted and cared for BUT we need to issue a warning: Adopting a grave can mean that you "talk about them at home like they are old relatives and stop by to say hello and sit a while on the way home from town." How wonderful is that! | | 'My name is Lily, a student from the University of Edinburgh who has recently completed an MSc in Environment, Culture and Society. After spending the majority of the last five years away at university, I was excited to connect with my local community in my final dissertation project. I wanted to combine my love and passion for the environment with my belief in the importance of community in building sustainable and just futures. Therefore, the ‘Adopt a Grave’ initiative at Rectory Lane Cemetery became the focus of my dissertation'.
A number of our wonderful grave gardeners agreed to engage with Lily's research - to read a brief summary of her research findings, follow this link. | | | I've since heard that she was awarded a distinction for her study! Congratulations!! | | | We were pleased to show around a small group from Parents for Future Herts & Bucks, explaining how we were managing the different areas of the cemetery for the benefit of both people AND wildlife. It was a beautiful day. The children found mini beasties under bark, yellow meadow ant hills, shared their knowledge of slugs and snails and enjoyed seeing our ponds. Parents enjoyed discovering this green space there for the whole community to use. | | Books in the Woods held their last meeting in the cemetery for the year (they'll be back in the Spring): 'What a gorgeous morning we had! Around 10 families with children ranging from 4 weeks to 9 years gathered under the trees in the gorgeous autumn sunshine for one of our fave books, ‘Tree’.
The adults shared chats, as well as stories with the little ones, and there was bark rubbing, gravestone rubbing, making leaf confetti, a tree trail, and some comparing of children’s heights to tree trunks using wool! | | | Meanwhile, our weekly working parties continue (Wednesdays 2 - 4pm), tackling whatever vital jobs need doing: composting, weeding, planting or even, as last Wednesday, removing an extremely overgrown ornamental box bush/tree which was diseased. It was a big job to take on - but we completed it this week and it has opened up a lovely new view across the valley. And we've created a new wildlife wood pile as a result. | | | Volunteer researchers are continually adding to our understanding of who is buried in the cemetery - all the information is uploaded to our online database, accessible to all.
This month we are highlighting Benjamin Jones (1840 - 1924), silk winder at age 11, later a shoemaker and wooden shovel maker. Burial records show that he lies in an unmarked grave, with someone unrelated to him - how does that come about? Follow this link to discover more. | | | 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 17 local families and have engraved over 144 commemorative tiles.
For more information, follow this link: https://www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk/sustain/memorialising/ | | | 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. | | | | | |
