An amazing display of natural flora has appeared at a Ryedale church - thanks to the Covid lockdown.

St Mary's is one of those idyllic spots in the Diocese of York where the surrounding meadows give way to heather-clad moorland in the distance, and the church sits a quarter of a mile from the tiny hamlet of Church Houses with its pub and village hall.

The churchyard hosts memorial stones from the 1700s onwards; prior to this the dead from Farndale were carried over the hills to the still-more remote church at the head of neighbouring Bransdale.

In the 1980s, Churchwarden Phil Collier recalls, the spacious churchyard was mown periodically by the local estate to provide feed for goats; in the 1990s and up until Foot & Mouth struck in 2001, areas away from the paths were fenced and grazed off by sheep. From the mid-2000s onwards, around 30 members of the village and dale community would come together in May, August and September to mow and clear the churchyard, ending the day with a barbecue.

Then in 2020 the country locked down and the mowing abruptly stopped, and suddenly church members were stunned by a bright, multi-coloured and textured carpet of flowers appearing amongst the standing stones.

Phil's wife Shirley-Anne found the website of Caring for God's Acre (www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk), the conservation charity for Burial Grounds across the UK; they watched some of CFGA's webinars and, says Phil, "I got hooked!"

A call to the North York Moors National Park Authority brought a full botanical survey of the churchyard, revealing 55 species of wild flowers and grasses. The churchyard has become a haven for wildlife including slow worms (a protected species); a family of brown hares nested there last year. A plan took shape to encourage and nurture the diversity of plant life while managing the churchyard as a place of peace and welcome for those who lie there and those who visit.

Now, the National Park ‘HOBS’ volunteer group visits St Mary’s to make the first, selective, cut of the season, this year in early June.

The HOBs cut pathways through the churchyard, and mow selected areas where the wild flora is less rich, according to a plan drawn up by the church. ‘Community cuts’ continue in August and September, after the flowering season, when the whole churchyard is mown and prepared for winter; “It’s fascinating to see how the same people often choose to cut the same areas of the churchyard,” says Phil.

St Mary’s Churchyard is wild in parts but managed, and certainly not neglected. The church and its council are mostly behind the management plan that protects the churchyard as a safe place for God’s creation, although Phil acknowledges that some people miss the more manicured appearance of a fully-mown space.

“If I wanted to persuade anyone to manage a churchyard this way, I’d say just wait for the surprise of what you have – you have no idea what you have until you let it grow.”