Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in,
where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.

John Muir (1838-1914)

The Grass and Flowers, with meaning rife,
Preach Life in Death, and Death in Life;
And every Nettle, Briar and Weed’
If rightly read, are Wisdom’s Seed –

From Lyra Memorialis – Original Epitaphs and Churchyard Thoughts in Verse by Joseph Snow (1847)

Click on the LINKS to find out more…..

MARK HOLROYD’S MEMOIR

Extracts from the 1901 memoir of the son of a Wainsgate minister who emigrated to America in 1835.

WAINSGATE WILDLIFE SURVEY

The 2006 survey of the Fauna, Flora, Fungi & Lichens found in the graveyard at Wainsgate.

FAUNA

MAMMALS

Roe deer – Bats (Common pipistrelle & Daubenton’s) – Grey squirrel – Wood mouse.

BIRDS

INSECTS

HONEY BEES

Beekeeping at Wainsgate – Telling the Bees.

FLORA

TREES & BUSHES

Arboricultural Safety Survey of trees in the graveyard, 2015.

FLOWERS, GRASSES & SHRUBS

Fox-and-Cubs, or Grim the Collier.

MOSSES & LIVERWORTS

FERNS & HORSETAILS

FUNGI

LICHENS

LAND ART / NATURE ART

Land art in the graveyard by Winston Plowes.

* * *

‘Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye ….. it also includes the inner pictures of the soul’.

‘From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them, and that is eternity.’

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Photographs by Charlie Morrissey

MARK HOLROYD’S MEMOIR

‘I was born in a gray sandstone house adjoining the Wainsgate Chapel. It was the parsonage. The chapel adjoined the cemetery. It had two yards; an upper and lower one surrounded with a stone wall. The upper yard was surrounded with young soft maples and Scotch firs, and in one corner of it was a garden, and in it I remember was a camomile bed and my remembrance calls up the display, the pink, the violet, the rose bush, the sweet briar, the lads-love or southern wood, the fragrant lavender, etc. that went to make up our nosies or nosegays.

My earliest recollection of events runs back to a time when my mother one warm early summer day took me into this garden. I had been sick with a slow fever and had so far recovered as to be taken into the fresh air into this garden of Wainsgate cemetery And I well remember the thrill of satisfaction that came over me there in my mother’s lap’.

The writer remembers the birds found around Wainsgate – thrush, linnet, robin and goldfinch:

‘Many a time have I listened to the skylark, rising out of a tuft of grass singing an soaring himself out of sight in an ecstasy of enjoyment’.

He describes the landscape around Wainsgate as having:

‘….scars and cliffs, noisy turbulent brooks, steep wooded hills, bleak heath clad hills and peaty morasses and narrow vales‘.

WAINSGATE WILDLIFE SURVEY

The burial ground, particularly the overgrown areas of the old graveyard and the area of heathland on the eastern edge, is an important wildlife habitat, and contains many species of fauna, flora, fungi and lichens, including two species of lichen of local conservation importance and Cowberry, which is uncommon in Calderdale. A wildlife survey was commissioned by Wadsworth Environment Group in 2006 and carried out by Charles Flynn, asisted by Colin Duke; the report can be downloaded here as a pdf:

The survey was carried out a while ago, but a lot of it is probably still relevant: some species may no longer be present, and some may not have been present when the survey was carried out, or were not recorded. We are hoping to commission a new wildlife survey before too long.

FAUNA

MAMMALS

The only mammals recorded in the 2006 survey were Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus). Grey squirrels are still seen in the graveyard, and Wood mice may well still be present.

ROE DEER

The most obvious omission in the 2006 report is Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), which are resident locally and are frequent visitors to the burial ground. They have been known to eat floral wreaths left on graves, and seem to be particularly fond of lilies.

Plot J859 – 17th February and 2nd March 2018 – Floral wreath eaten by Roe deer.

Roe deer in Wainsgate graveyard – 3rd July 2023. Photo by Charlie Morrissey

BATS

A Bat Survey was carried out in December 2024, in connection with repair works being carried out to the chapel and Sunday school. The survey identified two species of bat roosting on the building: Common pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and Daubenton’s bat (Myotis daubentonii).

left: Common pipistrelle bat right: Daubenton’s bat.

More coming soon…..

BIRDS

Several species of birds can be regularly seen or heard in and around the graveyard: Blackbird, Robin, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock (or Hedge Sparrow), House Sparrow, Song Thrush, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Jackdaw, Jay and Magpie.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Swallow can be seen or heard flying over the graveyard. Curlew and Pheasant in neighbouring fields and moorland can sometimes be heard in the graveyard. Barn Owls can sometimes be seen hunting in nearby fields.

Thanks to Cornell University’s Merlin app, which is particularly useful when it comes to trying to identify those birds that are heard but not seen, such as the Blackcap and Willow Warbler.

More coming soon…..

INSECTS

Coming soon…..

HONEY BEES

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, and live alone in the bee-loud glade.

From The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats (1888)

BEEKEEPING AT WAINSGATE

Bee hives at Wainsgate were first established over ten years ago by Wadsworth Environment Group in the uncultivated area in the north eastern corner of the graveyard.

TELLING THE BEES

More coming soon…..

FLORA

TREES & BUSHES

An Arboricultural Safety Survey of the trees at Wainsgate was commissioned by the Historic Chapels Trust, and was carried out by JCA Ltd. (arboricultural consultants) in 2015. A copy of their report can be downloaded as a pdf:

More coming soon…..

FLOWERS, GRASSES & SHRUBS

One of the most beautiful flowers growing wild in the graveyard is Fox-and-cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca, formerly Hieracium aurantiacum), a frequently naturalised garden escapee, originally from continental Europe, which is very commonly found in graveyards. At Wainsgate they are mostly round the lower end of the old graveyard near the bottom of the stepped path, but are gradually spreading across a wider area.

The name Fox-and-cubs is obviously derived from the orange flowers surrounded by smaller orange flower buds, and it is also known as Orange Hawkweed. Two more obscure names for this plant are ‘Devil’s Paintbrush’ and ‘Grim the Collier’. The most feasible explanation for the former is that it is brightly coloured and in some parts of the world is an invasive weed, unpopular with farmers. Nobody seems to have come up with a credible derivation of the name ‘Grim the Collier’ – even Richard Mabey’s Flora Britannica has no explanation.

The plant is recorded in this country in Gerard’s Herbal of 1633, and is referred to as ‘Grimme the Collier’. The word ‘collier’ can mean a charcoal maker, and charcoal making was a major industry around Croydon, south of London (the nearby village of Colliers Wood was first recorded in 1632, and its name derives from the charcoal burning carried out in the area). A play of uncertain authorship, first published in 1662, was called Grim the Collier of Croyden, and an earlier play, written around 1565 by Richard Edwardes called Damon and Pythias has a character called Grim the Collier, described as a ‘right Croyden sanguine’. This seems to imply that Grim the Collier was someone with a ruddy complexion and auburn hair, which possibly explains why this pretty orange flower ended up being called Grim the Collier.

(Thanks to the earthstar blog for helping me to try and unravel this mystery)

More coming soon…..

MOSSES & LIVERWORTS

Coming soon…..

FERNS & HORSETAILS

Coming soon…..

FUNGI

Coming soon…..

LICHENS

Lichens are strange and wonderful composite organisms that consist of algae or cyanobacteria living among the filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not plants. There are about 20,000 known species.

Lichens occur from sea level to high alpine elevations, in many environmental conditions, and can grow on almost any surface, including bark, leaves, mosses, or other lichens and hanging from branches (epiphytes) in rainforests and in temperate woodland. They grow on rock, walls, gravestones, roofs, exposed soil surfaces, rubber, bones, and in the soil as part of biological soil crusts. Various lichens have adapted to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth: arctic tundra, hot dry deserts, rocky coasts, and toxic slag heaps. It is estimated that 6–8% of Earth’s land surface is covered by lichens.

The English word lichen derives from the Greek λειχήν leichēn (“tree moss, lichen, lichen-like eruption on skin”) via Latin lichen. The Greek noun, which literally means “licker”, derives from the verb λείχειν leichein, “to lick”.

In American English, “lichen” is pronounced the same as the verb “liken”. In British English, both this pronunciation and one rhyming with “kitchen” are used.

To find out more about these fascinating organisms, visit the British Lichen Society website.

* * *

Nine species of lichen were recorded in the graveyard in the 2006 Wildlife Survey, with two noted as being of local conservation importance – Evernia prunastri and Usnea subfloridana – both Fruticose (bushy or shrubby) lichens.

Evernia prunastri, or oak moss, was found mostly on the sycamore trees along the southern boundary of the graveyard and in some of the trees in the old graveyard.

The lichen has a distinct and complex odour which can be described as woody, sharp and slightly sweet. Oak moss absolutes and extracts have been used as key components of Fougère and Chypre class perfumes.

Usnea subfloridana is a ‘beard’ lichen, and was found in the same locations at Wainsgate as the oak moss lichen.

The Wildlife Survey also identified six species of Foliose (leafy) lichens and one Crustose lichen (a type of lichen that forms a crust like structure that is completely attached to the substrate).

More coming soon…..

LAND ART / NATURE ART

Great art picks up where nature ends

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Local land artist (and author and poet) Winston Plowes has created several pieces in the graveyard at Wainsgate. His work is made from natural materials, ideally found on site, and is intended to be ephemeral – the materials degrade naturally, are scattered by the wind and rain, or are sometimes eaten by birds and animals.

Each of his pieces in the graveyard is respectfully placed on a grave, and is intended as a creative tribute to the person who is buried there:

‘….it’s like saying an artistic prayer in remembrance, to honour who they were at a place which often has become neglected with the passing years, forgotten and unvisited, in some cases for hundreds of years’.

Bridge #8 Gift #3 (2025) – Clay, Rowan Berries, Soot & Twigs. Photographs by Winston Plowes.

The central ‘gift’ is a clay hexagon covered in rowan berries from a tree next to the grave, placed on a bed of soot and encircled with sharpened twigs from around the grave. The berries and pointed twigs make reference to the colour and shape of the red granite memorial.

The memorial is to Frank Lorraine Wade, son of Charles and Ellen Wade of Halifax, and grandson of Edwin Wade, who was the brother of Josiah Wade. Frank died on 13th May 1913, aged nine months. The cause of his death is thought to be cystic fibrosis.

Bridge (2025) – Bull Kelp Stipe Slices, Half Rowan Berries & Gravestone. Photographs by Winston Plowes.

The slices of bull kelp (nereocystis luetkeana) stipe (or stem) were brought from Dunbar, Scotland, but the rowan berries were collected locally. There are 469 elements in the piece, which was made on an engraved gravestone in the oldest part of the graveyard, close to the chapel entrance. The gravestone commemorates Mary Eastwood, wife of John Eastwood of Ibbotroyd, who died in 1824 aged 62.

Most of the pieces created by Winston Plowes at Wainsgate are based on the hexagon, considered a powerful symbol in sacred geometry due to its perfect symmetry and balance. It has special significance in Islamic and Jewish faiths, and is believed to represent a link between heaven and earth, a bridge between the material and spiritual realms.

The hexagon is also considered to be one of the most common and efficient geometric shapes found in nature (alongside the sphere and circle) – honeycombs, snowflakes, insect eyes, basalt columns and turtle shells all feature hexagonal geometry.

This sequence of photographs, taken over two weeks in August 2025, shows the ephemeral nature of Winston’s work. The hexagon was made of yellow windfall plums, found below a local tree, and was placed on the grave of Arnold Stell, who died in 1940 aged 39, and his wife Alice. Although Alice remarried after Arnold’s death, she was buried with her first husband, remembered on the headstone as ‘a dear husband‘ .