Green Spaces
Urban burial grounds were originally envisaged as public open spaces and therefore were professionally designed to be attractive places to visit. In the community, cemeteries still have the stigma attached that their sole purpose and function is for the burial of the dead and for those visiting the graves of their loved ones. This close relationship between the cemetery and the park has disappeared from many local authority perceptions and strategies and the lack of awareness has meant Parks & Recreational Services Departments do not promote and look at the potential benefits that cemeteries can offer. The lack of design, planning and ambition means that the potential health and environmental benefits of cemeteries are not being fully realised.
Parks, open spaces, gardens, nature areas and woodlands, are important social spaces and are used to meet a variety of uses thus greatly contribute to the local quality of life. They help to give a neighbourhood a distinctive character and provide facilities that are often not found locally in a built up inner city.
Churchyards and cemeteries are increasingly valued for their bio-diversity and seen as sacred eco-systems. Older cemeteries are often rich habitats in which plants, invertebrates, birds and animals live with the minimal of disturbance. The low impact of pesticides, grass cut less frequently than other open green spaces ensures birds, bats, reptiles can thrive and the present of stonework providing micro-habitats encourage colonisation of insects. Different species of flowering plants thrive in these environments with some rare for our inner cities.
Cemeteries may deliver many health and ecological benefits as parks and should be brought back into the mainstream of parks and green space provision. While many local authorities have strategies of developing green spaces, few have separate cemetery strategies. Cemeteries are ‘special environments' with the same potential of other green spaces but to get this dual function right, more sensitive and site specific maintenance and management regimes need to be in place. The Green Flag Award scheme is increasingly being used to monitor and reward good cemetery management and provision and an increasing number of cemeteries are being entered and winning this prestigious award.
English Heritage stated the general appreciation of cemeteries as designed landscapes increased during the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s only 14 cemeteries were listed on the 'Register of Parks and Gardens' but it was evident that many more deserved a place on the register. By 2004, this had jumped to 110.
Well organised community involvement in conservation will strengthen respect for our Cemetery. Their very particular contribution to raising the quality of life does not sit appropriately within a community and therefore the profile and awareness of the Cemetery must be raised. Our heritage and social history should be properly protected as an educational and ecological site for the benefit of current and future generations and this can only be done through organisation and involvement.
Parks, open spaces, gardens, nature areas and woodlands, are important social spaces and are used to meet a variety of uses thus greatly contribute to the local quality of life. They help to give a neighbourhood a distinctive character and provide facilities that are often not found locally in a built up inner city.
Churchyards and cemeteries are increasingly valued for their bio-diversity and seen as sacred eco-systems. Older cemeteries are often rich habitats in which plants, invertebrates, birds and animals live with the minimal of disturbance. The low impact of pesticides, grass cut less frequently than other open green spaces ensures birds, bats, reptiles can thrive and the present of stonework providing micro-habitats encourage colonisation of insects. Different species of flowering plants thrive in these environments with some rare for our inner cities.
Cemeteries may deliver many health and ecological benefits as parks and should be brought back into the mainstream of parks and green space provision. While many local authorities have strategies of developing green spaces, few have separate cemetery strategies. Cemeteries are ‘special environments' with the same potential of other green spaces but to get this dual function right, more sensitive and site specific maintenance and management regimes need to be in place. The Green Flag Award scheme is increasingly being used to monitor and reward good cemetery management and provision and an increasing number of cemeteries are being entered and winning this prestigious award.
English Heritage stated the general appreciation of cemeteries as designed landscapes increased during the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s only 14 cemeteries were listed on the 'Register of Parks and Gardens' but it was evident that many more deserved a place on the register. By 2004, this had jumped to 110.
Well organised community involvement in conservation will strengthen respect for our Cemetery. Their very particular contribution to raising the quality of life does not sit appropriately within a community and therefore the profile and awareness of the Cemetery must be raised. Our heritage and social history should be properly protected as an educational and ecological site for the benefit of current and future generations and this can only be done through organisation and involvement.