Hitchin Cemetery Aug-Sep 2025

 

Hitchin Cemetery August-September 2025

As usual August saw the cemetery visited by numerous butterflies, some of which were getting towards the end of the their flight period. Here are a Common Blue and the last Gatekeeper of the year.

 

Other insects making an appearance included a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly and a Red-legged Shieldbug

 

A rather non-descript flower popped up, but an interesting one: Musk Stork's-bill. Joseph Little, the first head of Hitchin Boy's School is buried in the cemetery and was a keen plant collector and collected a specimen of this plant from Great Wymondley in 1928. He described it as a "Wool alien" meaning that he thought it had been introduced to the area as part of the fertilizer made from the waste product of the wool industry. Joseph's original pressed specimen (below right) is now held by the South London Botanical Institute and can be viewed on-line.

 

As usual the regular Friday volunteers continue to meet to work on the older part of the cemetery (if interested just turn up any Friday at 10:00 and we'll find a job for you). Often we maintain a grave or two and now that birds have finished nesting there'll be tree pruning and hedge cutting too (and cleaning out nest boxes). Here is a recent before and after shot of  the grave of Teresa Warr, who died in 1942 aged only 3, which has been tidied and planted with a variety of ornamental plants such as Dwarf Periwinkle.

A project which has taken time to come to fruition: two years ago a Minnis grave had the edge-stones moved to provide a truer alignment and the very limited soil was just enough for Ice Plants to thrive which are now flowering well.

 

 

Another thing the cemetery volunteers have been able to do is buy some Box Moth treatment, enough to treat the bushes in the older part of the cemetery, but not the more modern parts. It is a bacteria which is specific to Box Moths, bought in powdered form and mixed with water and applied as a spray and is completely harmless unless you are a Box Moth. So far it appears to be quite effective as demonstrated in the comparison below.

 

 

The mowing contractor (John O'Connor) was busy in September doing the annual "conservation" cut which involves cutting and removing the arisings from the areas of longer grass in the cemetery. This is an important activity which helps to improve the quality of the meadow areas and tidies up the winter-time appearance of the cemetery although, as specified in the cemetery's five-year greenspace action plan, one of the meadow areas is left uncut as a refuge for wildlife such as spiders, craneflies and a very tiny moth (see more below) as well as a bigger visitor.

Long grass retained for winter

The following two photos give a very good example of why it is good to retain an area of longer meadow over winter. This is a dead flower head of a Yarrow plant (from the above meadow area) and if you look carefully on the left and you can just about make out a little cigar-shaped tube about 2 or 3 cm long (magnified on the right). This is the home of the caterpillar of a Yarrow Case-bearer moth (Coleophora argentula). It surrounds itself with a protective layer made from a bit of leaf, and then reaches out of the end to nibble away at the Yarrow seeds. Biological diversity generally starts with very small things! 

 

The photo below shows an animal dropping found under the one Cherry tree in the cemetery (again in the winter meadow area), with obvious stones on view. It was about the size of a dog poo and the most likely originator is a Fox, which are definitely seen locally, and must visit the cemetery.

Another activity which occurred in September was an evening visit from the 9th Hitchin Guides. We were pleased to show them a few notable graves including that of the sexton William Morgan (our oldest monument), author Mary Dickens (Charles' granddaughter) and Mr Fitch (head of the British Schools). Once dusk fell a set of bat detectors, kindly loaned by the Countryside Management Service, were put to use. Unfortunately no bats were detected in the cemetery but we accompanied the Guides to The Hiz by St Mary's where bats were detected (most likely Pipistrelles). Many thanks to the guides for giving us chocolates and a £10 donation!

A final bit of wildlife spotted in September was a group of Rose Sawfly larvae, not everyone's cup of tea perhaps, but I find them rather attractive. They tend to occur on wild roses and leave garden varieties alone, which is quite considerate of them. Sawflies get their name from the saw-like appendage found at the rear of the females which they use to make a slit in the bark to lay their eggs. A search along the rose stem usually reveals the site of the egg laying, as shown below. 

 

As ever the Friends group will be meeting throughout the winter months and if you do join us then maybe bring a hot drink with you too.