Spooner Row Message Board

The churchyard often looks pretty especially when the primroses are flowering.

I would enjoy more community seating on the playing field or somewhere suitable.

I welcome Wymondham Abbey taking a greater interest to Spooner Row Church but ask the question, why now?

The contractors brought in to cut the grass in the churchyard have for the last 2 years cut at the beginning of the season and then the end.  Such a policy means you have to cut short and short they did.  The last cut was carried out on a wet day and everything was cut down to a green mush.  As a result, more grass on which to place picnic tables but much of what made this space a rich and varied haven for wildlife has gone or been diminished.  

Yes, you still have plenty of tall cow parsley but its the little things that have gone.  Most of the bluebells were damaged during the cut and those that remain are left in small patches missed by the mower.  The intensity of primroses is significantly reduced.  In earlier years the moles would turn over the soil and primroses would flourish but close cutting with a big machine means you level the ground and force out the moles.  Great if you want a lawn but not good for wildlife.  Another good indicator of diversity are the insects and butterflies but butterfly numbers have been markedly down for the last 2 years.  

Wymondham Abbey could do so much more with this space.  Yes, cut a small area for grass if you want picnic tables and cut for pathways that meander around the church but for the rest, leave things to nature or intervene less aggressively.

And the Abbey should get a tree survey undertaken. The Common Limes are in a poor state and cutting the bases last year with a tractor mounted hedge cutter did not help. The dead wood up in the canopies also needs to be addressed as a matter of safety.