Churchyard
How often do we walk past the glossy tendrils of ivy, doing its thing of clambering, up and over walls and trees, without a second glance? Yet this plant has played a part through centuries in mankind's storytelling. We sing joyously of it at Christmas - it is not as great as the holly, the carol tells us, yet, some believed long ago that the ivy represented Mary mother of Jesus, and at Christmas we honour the plant. It is traditionally used in wreaths and decorations.
Ivy Photo: Ally Rae
It is also the symbol of Bacchus, or Dionysus, God of wine, son of Zeus, who is often depicted wearing a crown of ivy and carrying a branch round which ivy is entwined. This branch (a thyrus)) is believed to have been a fertility symbol. To the Druids, ivy was powerful, a potent symbol of strength. Ivy even today is considered a symbol of fidelity and is often used at weddings while centuries ago young women would carry it to aid fertility. The carols of the middle ages, reveal that holly was thought of as masculine and ivy, feminine. The folklore and legends surrounding this plant are legion. It is also 'brilliant' for wildlife. Wildlife Trusts tell us that it does not harm trees and it provides food and shelter throughout the winter and rich nectar for pollinators.
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- Written by: Claire Jordan
There are not many organisms living on this planet that can claim immortality. Perhaps none, other that is, than the yew. This astonishing tree can regenerate, again and again, by suspending low branches onto the soil that begin to root and grow new trunks. When the tree becomes aged it hollows out and a new trunk can grow within the old. Because of this the yew is associated by Christianity with death and resurrection and will be found more often than not in churchyards.
Berries of European Yew. Photo thanks to Creative Commons.dmott9It is said that a fence post made of yew, will outlive one of iron. Today the wood is used for parquet flooring, furniture and lutes and also to make a powerful anti-cancer drug.
The yew spans the ages; it existed long before man. Fossils of the yew have been found from the Jurassic era, 140 million years ago. It is entwined with man's history and culture and is so rich in its own story that it would take a book to tell it. Shakespeare, Tennyson and Wordsworth and Sylvia Plath make reference to this tree. Sixty legends at least, exist of saints planting staffs that grew into yew trees. One legend relates that Pontius Pilate as a child played among the branches of the truly ancient 'Fortinall Yew' in Glen Lyon; apparently, on a diplomatic visit with his father. Henry the Vth triumphed at Agincourt because of the long bows made from yew and dipped in the tree's deadly poison. The yew at Runnymede saw The Magna Carta signed and the inauguration of Saxon kings. Many ancient and magical sites are found within a circle of yews. It was sacred to Druids. A yew in Nevern churchyard in Wales oozes blood coloured sap constantly. There are several legends which try to explain this phenomenon but the Christian interpretation is that the yew bleeds in sympathy with Christ on the cross.
Britain has more ancient yews than anywhere and most are in churchyards. Poisonous in nearly all parts, it is likely that farmers were happy for them to be in churchyards. They are nevertheless brilliant for wildlife, providing shelter and food.
Leading image: Estry Yew, Normandy, around 1,600 years old. By Roi.dagobert - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15479914
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It didn't do to get ill or injured in the past. Something quite trivial, a sharp thorn in a finger, a blister or cut, could escalate and be life-threatening, and surgery was brutal.
Mallow at St Peter's. Photo: Ally RaeLuckily, something as commonplace as mallow, which grows in St. Peter's churchyard, was as good as a medicine chest. Wisdom passed down through generations over hundreds of years, knew that mallow could help with burns, coughs, colds, tonsillitis, digestive problems, eczema, cut wounds, diarrhea and urinary problems. Perhaps Forncett parishioners would have gathered the flowers and leaves in the churchyard when a family member was ill.
Herbal medicine has been in practice for centuries and the use of mallow can be traced back 3,000 years. Today scientific and medical studies have confirmed its many healing properties and vitamin content. It has chemical compounds that treat cancer, it is anti-microbial and anti-flammatory and can in certain cases, protect kidneys and liver.
It is possible that it arrived here from the Holy Land during the Crusades.
Reference: National Library of Medicine
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"The ground is all yellow like the sun", was the astonished cry of an excited 6 year old seeing her home in a Cambridgeshire rectory for the first time. The child was a young Dorothy Sayers, the crime writer; the gold, rolling over the field, was made by the winter aconite.
Winter Aconites Photo: Ally Rae
This little flower can be seen gilding some of our own corners in St. Peter's churchyard. Dorothy's father, told her of the legend that these flowers were only to be found where the blood of Roman soldiers had been spilt. Apparently though the flower didn't arrive on our shores until 1596! The story though, made such an impression on the little girl that she became passionate about Ancient Rome and a keen classicist all her life.
This little flower, bravely flowering even through snow, often in woodland where sunlight is filtered through bare winter branches, is called 'Choirboys' in Suffolk. The cup shaped yellow head is surrounded by feathery green bracts like a choirboy's ruff. Another legend is that when Persephone returned from Hades to a world condemned by her mother Demeter, to eternal winter, the winter aconite was the first flower to burst into colour signifying the return of spring and warmth, hope and resilience.
Ref: Such a Strange Lady: A Biography of Dorothy L. Sayers by Janet Hitchman. 1975
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Ted Hughes wrote in his poem 'Snowdrop' that it is as "heavy as metal"! This seems a curious description, and yet there is something steely about the delicate snowdrop.
Harbinger of Spring Photo: Peter Schmidt Hansen
Each February, or, depending on how harsh the winter, late January, this flower forces its way up through leaf litter and sticks and fallen branches. The little torpedo heads hang in mock modesty, waiting for the earliest bees. it is always a cheering sight because we see it as Wordsworth did as
"............................venturous harbinger of Spring,
This phrase is very well used now, but it took a poet of genius to put it so well! If you walk past the school down the footpath you will see tight clusters tumbling down the bank of St. Peter's churchyard.
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The first daffodil in England was brought by the Romans and is often known as 'The Lent Lily'. Wild and slight, compared to its cousins, it favours woodlands and is paler in colour. This was probably the daffodil immemorialised by William Wordsworth.
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Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, tra-la-la-la-la...
So goes the lovely old English Christmas carol; but holly is not a 'just for Christmas' tree. It is embedded in the English language in history and folklore. Even an English King, it is said, was moved by love to celebrate its qualities.
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Here's a puzzle. What single thing can get rid of moths and fleas, help curdle cheese, work as a coffee bean substitute, be used to make mattresses, provide red dye and work as a medicine for several illnesses?
Our ancestors worked out that the flower Lady's Bedstraw could provide all these. This soft, sweet-smelling, pale primrose, delicate flower which grows in drifts in meadows and banks, rocky corners and verges was an important domestic herb. It was strewn around to deter fleas and give the house a fragrant scent of fresh mown hay. Its formal name is Galium Verum - Gala is Greek for milk and its flowers were used instead of rennet to make milk curdle. If you were fortunate enough to be born a lady or gentlemen you would sleep on a palliasse stuffed with this sweet smelling dried flower. If born a servant, filling the mattresses might have been one of the jobs allotted to you.
Lady's Bedstraw at St Peter's, July 2021. Photo: A Rae
It was believed that childbirth was made easier by lying on a bed of bedstraw. One legend relates how The Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus on a bed of lady's bedstraw and bracken. The bracken refused to acknowledge Jesus and lost its flower, while the bedstraw bloomed in recognition and turned from white to gold.
Used for coffee and tea substitutes (tea can be bought in Holland and Barratt), the leaves, stems and flowers of this versatile plant were also used to make medicine. It was used long ago to treat skin rashes and allergies, gout, urinary tract problems, kidneys and epilepsy and has some limited uses in medicine today.
Lady's Bedstraw is one among the richly diverse wildflowers that have been growing for centuries in Forncett St. Peter's churchyard.
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"I will pick the green yarrow that my figure may be fuller...that my voice will be sweeter...that my lips will be like the juice of the strawberry." Long ago in Ireland, a young woman might have recited this chant in Gaelic.
This will be the first in a series about wildflowers found in St. Peter's churchyard, their medicinal uses and the folklore surrounding them.
Yarrow, is an ancient wildflower steeped in folklore. Not only was it believed to increase physical attractiveness, it is said it was used by Achilles, the greatest of all Greek warriors, in the Trojan Wars, to treat wounds inflicted by iron weapons. Anglo-Saxons here in Britain pounded the plant and mixed it with grease to heal wounds. It is excellent for staunching blood flow, reducing inflammation and fighting infection (hence the old name, 'hedge woundwort.') Yarrow has a delicate white flower and feathery foliage. Nowadays it is believed that it can treat depression and anxiety as well as relieve digestive disorders and it can be found in health shops.
Yarrow at St Peter's. Photo: G Starkie
Yarrrow is one of many wildflowers which have been probably been growing for centuries in Forncett St. Peter's churchyard and maybe it is not fanciful to imagine that villagers made use of it in Anglo-Saxon times, or in The Middle Ages.
The history of plant use for medicinal reasons is as old as mankind itself and accounts of their different applications can be found across civilisations and centuries.
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Natterer's Bat. Photo Paul van Hoof
St Peter’s Goes Batty!
Bats are amazing little creatures, an important part of the ecosystem, and they have probably been sharing St Peter’s with us for hundreds of years. We’ve known for a long time that bats were roosting in the church – they are messy neighbours, especially when they can fly around inside the church as they do here, and their droppings make church cleaning even harder. A survey carried out in August 2020 has thrown more light on the special relationship between St Peter’s and bats. As part of the Norfolk Bat Survey – a citizen science project run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) since 2013 – Mike and Pam Merrick set up microphones in the churchyard, revealing that 7 bat species were using it. This makes St Peter’s the site with the second greatest variety of bats so far recorded in the Forncetts. Top of the recordings were Common Pipistrelles at 3293 recordings in a single night, making these the most likely to be roosting in the church, according to Stuart Newson, the BTO scientist leading the bat survey. Surprising were the 274 recordings of Natterer’s bats, which had not previously been known to be using this area of south Norfolk. The other species recorded were Soprano Pipistrelle, Serotine, Brown Long-Eared Bat, Barbastelle and Common Noctule. Microphones also picked up 3050 recordings of bush crickets! We are guardians of a special wildlife haven, with the wildlife-friendly churchyard and the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the Tas Valley next door. The recordings of Natterer’s bats proved particularly interesting and further recording was done in September to get a better understanding of their social calls – rather than the eco-location calls they use to find their insect prey. We’ll find out the results later.
Bats are strictly protected and their presence in a building always creates a challenge when repairs and renovations are needed. Our Project Architect, Ruth Blackman (Birdsall, Swash and Blackman Ltd.), will be commissioning ecological investigations before building work gets underway. We are about to learn a whole lot more about the bats who share St Peter’s. We’ll be looking for all sorts of ways to share all things batty with you in the months ahead.
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- Written by: Ally Rae