New southern boundary hedge completed
Our heartfelt thanks to Plantswoman Jacqui Sharples of Newburgh who successfully created phase 2 of our new laurel boundary hedge in foul weather on Monday September 30th. Hopefully the new laurels will bed in as well as those of phase 1 did! More to come for the church’s eco project in due course. Watch this space!
May session in the churchyard
Another eco church session was held in the churchyard on Sunday May 19th as we got together to refurbish the grave plots, manage the grass and the bushes and shrubs, maintained the raised beds, prepped for more nestboxes and the replacement of the southern boundary fence with another stretch of laurel hedging. The team worked hard and enjoyed the well-earned picnic! More work to come as we go through the summer including the rewilding of the grass area in the picture around the bug hotel and planting of fruit bearing canes etc in the two hedges.
Watch this space for the next date!
All Saints’ Church is working towards being
an eco friendly church.
Thank you so much to the following organisations who have given grants towards our pioneering Eco Church Project:
- The Whitemoss Community Fund for their further grant of £20,000
- The Bernard Sunley Foundation for their grant of £5000
- The Garfield Weston Foundation for their grant of £5000
- The Beatrice Laing Trust for their grant of £2,000
The Benefact Trust for their grant of £2,250 - The Rank Foundation for their grant of £1,500
- The Peter Lathom charity for their grant of £462
140 children visit our Eco Project
ALL SAINTS has welcomed more than 140 local schoolchildren to the church for the first time in the latest development of our Eco Church project.
Classes from Shevington Vale Primary School, All Saints Primary School Appley Bridge, and Parbold Douglas Church of England Academy spent the morning and afternoon engaged in activities focused on ‘Caring For God’s Creation,’ including sessions on growing fruit and vegetables, making and maintaining an insect hotel, making a no-plastic bird feeder, whilst inside the church half the children were allocated chairs to sit on and half were allocated a place on the carpet to demonstrate unfair inequalities.
It was suggested there are ways to help make life fairer by taking action to care for God’s creation and respect it by reducing waste, recycling and re-using .
To encourage adults at home to recycle, children made their own label to tape to a paper carrier bag with a message saying ‘soft plastic for recycling’
One of the young eco warriors said: “We all learned that soft plastic wrappers from biscuit and crisp packs can be recycled at supermarkets.
Mini bug hotels were made by the children on the day from recycled milk cartons filled with re used items including bamboo canes, moss, pine cones and cardboard tubes.
Take home bags were provided for every child containing a kit to make a plastic free bird feeder from an apple decorated with sunflower seeds. The children were encouraged to hang the decorated apples up outside at home or at school for birds to eat in winter, when bird food is scarce.
Our Vicar the Rev Sue Timmins was delighted to welcome the group of youngsters from the three local schools: “When we were applying for support for our Eco Church project, part of our vision was to encourage young people especially to think about the environment, energy use and the way we use the resources of God’s amazing creation.
“It was wonderful to see so many children in our church building and church yard, more than 140 from three different schools, engaging in activities that emphasized care for animals and insects, using less energy, growing food at home and school, and understanding more about the environment that will increasingly depend on their future actions for its health and welfare.
“We are beginning to see the benefits of the time and investment in promoting a planet-friendly agenda here in Appley Bridge, and intend to push on and draw in both adults and children alike from our wider community.”
The All Saints team that welcomed the children comprised the Rev Sue Timmins, Reader Dr Sara Shackleton, Churchwardens Mike Tyrer and Ian Hunter, Project Manager David Mapple, Youth Leader Cath Rainford and Deputy Churchwarden Mark Ashley.
Project Organiser David Mapple, who built the church’s new Insect Hotel, was impressed by the understanding shown by the children: ““Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised that this generation seems more in touch with the planet than we were at their age. The thought of killing bugs, even scary spiders, was abhorrent to just about every one of them. It was both refreshing and sobering to listen to a future generation tasked with the challenge of rectifying the mistakes of our past!”
The newly-installed double glazed windows in the southern and western walls of the church reduce heat loss, and the new LED lights reduce electrical power usage.
All Saints has also sensitively managed its relationship with a colony of Pipstrelle bats, which has now been provided with bat box accommodation on the western gable end of the church building in the hope of providing a more comfortable and permanent home for them.
All Saints Eco Project has benefited from considerable and generous financial support from a number of different grant providers, including The Whitemoss Community Fund, The Bernard Sunley Foundation, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Beatrice Laing Trust, The Benefact Trust, the Rank Foundation and the Peter Lathom charity.
🦇All Saints makes a home for bats!🦇🦇🦇
Some time ago we became aware that a colony of Pipistrelle bats had created a roost under the cladding above the west door of the church (our main entrance). One or two members of our church family noticed bat droppings on the window sill underneath the space that had rotted away on the cladding. We called in the experts, and a late evening vigil by a local bat expert along with Churchwarden Mike Tyrer and Deputy Churchwarden Mark Ashley did not show that the bats were currently occupying the space behind the cladding.
Nevertheless, our expert had a monitor that picked up the sound of the bats’ ultrasonic radar signals flying around the church with her bat detector, so the bats had swapped to a roost away from church. They could up sticks and return to church at any time. We have replaced the windows on the south side of church as per our refurbishment plan, and we have put up an appropriate bat roost box to the western church wall ( high up near the apex of the roof) to give these amazing protected mammals a new space in which to roost safely.
Several younger members of the congregation have expressed an interest in following our bat story, and below we have some resources with information that can be read online or printed off. Watch this space for more news about the Appley Bridge Pipistrelle colony as we get it!
Bat Pack 1 download here
Bat Pack 2 download here
Bat Pack 3 download here
Bat Pack 4 download here
Save energy and the planet at home – click here
All Saints Eco Church in the News!!
Our map to a sustainable and community based environmentally friendly future has been produced for us by David Mapple. It provides us with the basic framework for our work in the eco church area and gives us a measure of where we are.
Progress with our ♻️ Eco Project
SUNDAY JUNE 25TH
We are moving towards the Silver Eco award from the A Rocha Eco Church Awards scheme, and on Sunday June 25th a large group of the church family and friends did a massive job in the churchyard, including tree husbandry, grave plot refurbishment, wildlife refuge building, bird box installation, raised bed creation and planting fruit bushes along the boundary fence line. This was followed by a well timed picnic lunch in church as the rain came hammering down.
Thanks to everyone who took part. Thanks also to Sarah Mapple for the photographs, David Mapple for generous donation of essentials for the work: Crisps, Biscuits and Water Bottles, and Mark Atherton for the essential spade!
The work was done according to the principles of the A Rocha scheme, namely Being Good Stewards of God’s Earth.
1. Reduce waste
Home made compost was used, water butt installation started (to reduce mains water used for watering plants etc)
2. Reuse
Old food containers have been used to grow blackcurrant, blackberry and raspberry plants to form a new hedge line on the boundary, also used for growing herbs for the raised beds.
3. Recycle
Two donated nest boxes installed on churchyard trees.
4. Measure
We increased biodiversity by providing new homes for plants and animals: the habitats are logpile, scrub (uncut) grass, mown grass, shady areas under trees, a new rockery, and a new raised bed.
Eco ♻️ Award: All Saints’ church has been confirmed as the recipient of the A Rocha Eco Church Bronze award 🥉after the work done on the churchyard in summer 2022. 👍 A plaque is on display in the church foyer, and of course we are continuing to make plans to achieve the silver 🥈award, and indeed in good time the gold 🥇award. Our aim is to make All Saints’ into a beacon church in our community for environmentally friendly activity and provide opportunities for all people to engage in and learn about caring for God’s creation. A big thank you especially to the working party that did so much in the church garden.
Our next phase will involve looking at and implementing ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint at All Saints’, including things like car sharing for journeys to and from church (could you offer a regular lift to another member of the family?) Check out the attached CofE checklist (see attached). Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with all of us in the All Saints’ family. We have never been more conscious of the need to reduce our impact on the planet – everyone can do their bit, and the time for us is NOW!
Share your thoughts via email to mark.ashley@blackburn.anglican.org
We have been using the C of E energy saving checklist to help us in the development of or thinking on this project.,
Sunday 21st August 2022
Eco Church afternoon in the Garden of Remembrance
All Saints’ bid to become an ecologically friendly church was given a big boost by this family friendly afternoon. Many members of our church family came together and worked hard, sustained only by cake, fruit and lots of laughs! 👩🏼🌾🪴💒
