Botcherby Brew at St Andrew's Church | Case study

What did they want to achieve?

Rob has a background in gardening and a genuine interest in wildlife, with a real desire to find new ways to involve the local community. There were lots of ideas – despite the church's land being limited to a roughly meter-wide strip all the way around.

How did they do it?

Rob organised a get-together where neighbours, church members and volunteers congregated on a sunny Saturday morning which soon turned into a full day of work. The group of eight soon cleared the overgrown brambles, dug out and laid a pond, hung up bird boxes and built a hedgehog hide.

One of Houghton’s Men’s Shed volunteers, Bruce, offered to build some flat-pack planters that the church could then assemble on-site. The front porch of the building needed some colour adding and Bruce tracked down donations of old pallets and unused boardwalk planks to construct them.

Rob organised another work party day, with a BBQ lunch to celebrate. 

What help did our Community Team provide?

After Cumbria Wildlife Trust stumbled across the church's Facebook group, Rob McWilliams, one of the church volunteers came forward to have a chat.

Nextdoor Nature funds paid for compost and plants to fill the new planters with a pollinator-friendly mix of established colourful flowers and wildlife-winning plug plants.

What was the outcome?

Some of the attendees at the planting day happened to be passing by and were drawn in through the interest of seeing what was going on. They now still regularly attend family sessions at the church.

Bruce went back to make a slight tweak to the planter a few weeks after it was installed – a neighbour came out to say how much she loved seeing the colour in front of the church. She said it used to have bushes outside many years ago but these were long gone.

While it may be another year before any nature moves into the birdhouses or hides, the pond already has signs of life and the simple addition of a few wildlife-friendly features out the front has not only got people talking about wildlife, it's drawn a new community closer together.