Gander Grants

By Mike Jones
(With photos and editorial additions by the Editor)

While our village’s newer cemetery continues to win well-deserved awards for being the best-kept grounds around, the historic old churchyard at All Saints tells a very different story. Tucked away behind the church, the southern area had become an impenetrable jungle after successive district council budget cuts drastically reduced routine maintenance.

Determined to save the historic site, a volunteer working group stepped up in 2021 with the full agreement of the Lincoln Diocese and North Lincolnshire Council. Over almost a year of continuous effort, the volunteers made remarkable progress clearing thick scrub and undergrowth. However, because North Lincolnshire Council holds legal responsibility for maintaining the closed churchyard, municipal funding wasn't available at the time to tackle the most severe issue: massive, fully grown trees sprouting directly out of historic graves.

Initial efforts to raise money through crowdfunding, donations, and grant applications fell short. The situation remained stuck until early this year, when the Head of Green Spaces at North Lincolnshire Council successfully secured budget for professional arborists to begin felling the tree growth damaging the graves.

To maximize the budget, arborists and local volunteers established a practical partnership: the tree surgeons felled the heavy timber, and volunteers removed the wood once safely on the ground. This joint effort dramatically expanded the area cleared. The community remains hopeful that council funds will stretch far enough to complete the remaining felling by the end of the year.

Special thanks go to The Gander, who generously donated £250 toward the specialized poison pellets used to treat the fresh stumps and stop root systems from destroying further masonry.

A Note from the Editor

I’ve always held a deep fascination for historic church graveyards—during my A-Level and photography student days, a site like All Saints would have been a dream assignment.

Some of these soaring trees reach high into the canopy, wrapped in ivy trunks as thick as an arm. Having inspected the grounds last year before clearance began, I can truly appreciate the monumental effort achieved here... as well as the wild destruction nature leaves behind.

While headstones naturally shift over time, decades of aggressive vegetation growth have forced heavy masonry apart—making some stones look as though they exploded, while others have been completely engulfed into tree trunks. Watching raw nature overpower stone is a compelling spectacle, but saving it requires patience. Stabilising and tidying these heavy historic monuments will be a long process requiring great care and respect, and though a massive section has been cleared, there are still plenty more trees to address.