As the Spring edges us into the gardens, we celebrate some of the outdoor spaces of our churches – how they’re used, what we hope to achieve and how you can get involved.
I write another email reply. It sounds the same as the others. “Sorry, we don’t have a burial ground here.”
We receive many requests from people digging into their family tree. The reports from a century and more ago, often refer to “burial at St Mary’s” but what was really meant was a funeral service here followed by burial in Cathays Cemetery which took the dead of the ancient parish of St Mary’s.
I point them in the right direction, wish them all the best as they dig around their family archives. History and heritage clings to our churches like the ivy which climbs their walls.
Whilst we don’t have any burial grounds attached to our churches, we do have gardens and grounds which often take more maintenance than the buildings. The seasons don’t hold back.
The Seasons of St Mary’s
The lockdown years lent themselves easily to gardening, but as life sped up again, time spent digging around and cutting back became more sparse, and the work of those months has now again succumbed to nature’s rhythms. Time to cut that ivy.
During this time, St Mary’s Wildside was fashioned, a place to care for nature. We created QR audio trails too, one for children, the other for adults, taking you on a reflective journey to consider our responsibility as Christians to care for God’s creation.
Years later, our Wildside needs a little taming, and the area at the front of the church awaits a spell of dryer weather for a slight revamp as we clear areas for raised beds. Time to grow.
A steady stream of people make their way along Bute Street, pulled by the sea and Mermaid Quay with its clutter of cafes and restaurants.
Some are surprised by the church which seems to sneak up on them as they pass the Salvation Army’s Homeless provision next door.
They pause for a moment. Many are struck by the huge crucifix which dominates the gardens, a memorial to the men lost in War. They take a pic and then they’re on their way.
In the Summer, this will become a place for barbecues with the “Great Get Together” Barbecue at the end of Refugee Week, and the Assumptiontide celebrations in August. The gardens are a space to gather.
Meanwhile, a quick scurry away to the other end of the church, characterised by tarmac and parked cars, we’ve reclaimed some space for nature, each year adding more plants which bring in the bees and bugs and lift the human spirit.
From here, you can look across the city’s landscape as cranes pierce the sky. The city builds up, builds out. Slick apartments rise as millions of pounds of investment is sucked up. We take a breath, try to care for what we can’t afford, but which we can’t afford to ignore.
The gardens and grounds and the buildings we inhabit always need some work. The seasons don’t hold back.
A Splott of Colour
Across the way in Splott, a splash of colour brings nature’s touch to Splott Road.
The gardens at St Saviours were first enclosed by railings in 1893, five years after the church was dedicated in 1888. Two years later the grass lawns were laid.
The lawns serve us well, and provide a great gathering space for events and activities and, on a sunny day after Mass, the doors are open and children play.
Just like St Mary’s, a central feature of the gardens is the Calvary, the gift of “a good friend’. The original plates containing the full list of men from Splott were unveiled by Lord Tredegar on November 11, 1921. Sadly, more names were to be added from future wars and conflicts.
Whilst it’s not a large garden, we make good use of it, with open lawns for gatherings and events, parts set aside for wildlife with bug and bee houses, and two shrines of Our Lady and St Francis which were installed last year. There’s even a hedgehog home, as we await the first resident.
At the same time, during the “Churches Unlocked Festival,” children from Moorland Primary School planted a living larder with us, a collection of herbs available for anyone to use.
The children also discovered something of the history and heritage of Splott, gazed up to the stained glass windows and the stories they tell, discovered treasures hidden in the walls.
Yes, our churches are places rich in history and heritage, with archives and records and remnants of the past. The human stories are part of our landscape, tell us who we are.
But we are rich too in our natural heritage, and the sense of worth we find when lingering in the garden, when we lean in close to nature, dig around or rest awhile, and wait for that hedgehog to arrive.
If you’d like to contribute to our garden spaces, either by volunteering to help or donating plants and pots and other items, then do get in touch.
St Mary’s first Gardening day take place on Saturday May 11 from 10am to 1230pm
South Cardiff Ministry Area 
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