Churchyards Sub-Committee

The Churchyards Sub-committee deals primarily with data collection, conservation, and research relating to the British Lichen Society’s Churchyard Project . This was instigated in the early 1990s by the late Tom Chester. One of the aims of the project was to survey at least one churchyard in each of the Ordnance Survey’s 10km squares covering lowland Britain. This has now been achieved and the emphasis has moved on to churchyard surveys covering the south west (now almost completed), Wales and the Welsh Borders, Northern England (almost complete) and Scotland and Northern Ireland. This ongoing work has continued to emphasise the importance of the churchyard environment to lichen conservation.

Regional coordinators, members of this Sub-committee, manage areas of England: ‘ the lowland triangle ’, comprising 35 vice-counties of lowland England; South-west England; West Midlands & Welsh Borders; Northern England. There are also co-ordinators for Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Members of the sub-committee respond to churchyard queries from dioceses, church incumbents, and the public through our network of diocesan contacts/representatives. Hard copies of churchyard species records are kept by the regional coordinators. Each year a field meeting is arranged to review knowledge and impart ID skills in respect of critical genera.