St Olave’s Churchyard Needs You
(Last Updated: 09-05-2012)
St Olave Community Churchyard Renovation
The churchyard of St Olave’s is a richly historic site. The house of Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster, stood opposite. Over this ground Samuel Pepys would have walked from his house in Seething Lane to attend service in his “own church”. Here is the final resting place of hundreds of victims of The Great Plague of 1665. The gateway adorned with skulls and crossbones sparked the imagination of Charles Dickens, who referred to this place as “one of my best beloved churchyards” and nicknamed the church “St Ghastly Grim”.
Today the churchyard is valued by many as a place of peace and refreshment in the heart of the City of London and we are seeking to improve it with new landscaping and replanting. In this we will be collaborating with the City of London Corporation, which maintains the churchyard as a valuable public open space under a long-standing agreement.
Among other plans we wish to accomplish two particular aims:
• To create a herbal garden inspired by the work of William Turner (c.1508-1568), who spent his final years in the parish and is buried at St Olave’s. Turner’s great three-volume Herball was the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to plants ever published in the English language and led to his being acclaimed as “The Father of English Botany”.
• To keep a thriving colony of bees as a model and inspiration for similar schemes throughout the City. Bees are in decline, a fact which has serious implications for biodiversity and the health of the planet we all share. The City, like anywhere else, needs a healthy ecosystem and keeping bees will help maintain the balance of nature in this important place.
We are asking those who are interested in joining us in the exciting and long-term project of Community Churchyard Renovation to make contact and give of their time and energy. Maybe you have specific skills and expertise that are needing an outlet.
Do get in touch with us by completing and returning the form you will find on our flyer, which you can download HERE
City Bees drawn by Hannah Carding