Hitchin Cemetery June-July 2026

The top news from the cemetery is that it has been awarded a Green Flag Award for the first time! This scheme is run by the Keep Britain Tidy charity and is only given to parks and green spaces which meet a whole host of criteria from accessibility and safety through to appropriate management of the environmental and cultural landscape. The Friends of Hitchin Cemetery group is proud to have played a part over the last 10 years in looking after the cemetery by working with North Herts Council and the Countryside Management Service and this award is recognition that the cemetery is an important part of Hitchin's community.

The Green Flag Awards ceremony, held in Watford

Paul Todd MBE (Green Flag Award Manager at Keep Britain Tidy), Alan North (NHC Head of Green Spaces),  Derek Burness (founder member of FofHC) and Michele Walde (Learning and Development Manager for the  Green Flag Award).

FofHC Team: Phil, John, Hilary, Margaret, Veronica, Derek and Jack. Special mention to Alison who couldn't attend & new recruit Rita

In other news,...

Heavy rain in early June caused two of the conifers to break branches, but luckily the trees survived and don't look too bad; as ever any problems such as this are cleared very efficiently, within 24 hours, by North Herts Council's contractors. Whilst on the topic of damaged trees it is worth noting that a very attractive Miller moth was spotted close to the cemetery and these moths need soft, rotten Birch wood into which caterpillars tunnel to pupate, so maybe one of the habitat wood-piles in the cemetery provided just the right conditions for the moth, pictured below? FofHC will be on the look out for any suitable fallen wood to enhance existing piles and we'll have to see if the tree surgeons might make a fresh habitat pile when the next Silver Birch is in need of attention. Unfortunately we just missed out asking this time as two dead birches were removed recently.

The Scabious flowers in the meadow areas have been doing very well during both June and July and played host to a variety of very nice insects...

  

Six-spot Burnet Moth                                       Rose Chafer Beetle

  
Large Scabious Mining Bee                                Early Bumblebee

The Large Scabious Mining bee has not previous been seen in the cemetery and is an important sighting because these bees are sufficiently unusual that they appear in the Red Data Book. All of these sightings confirm the idea that the cemetery's areas of longer grass are really delivering biodiversity; it is noted that North Herts Council have identified 20 areas of green spaces across their various parks where meadows are being introduced. Let's hope they will be just as successful as the areas in Hitchin Cemetery are proving to be.

The drought over the past weeks has made the cemetery look rather brown and parched as might be expected and indeed one of the regular Friday work parties was cancelled due to the heat. However one person has taken it upon herself to take a logical step to help wildlife in these dry conditions...  

  
Scott, Bullard & Burson joint grave                           Roach family grave                

A big shout-out to Ginette, one of the many regular dog-walkers who visit the cemetery every day, who noticed that there are several graves which feature a bird-bath and during the drought she has been filling these up (FofHC formed a rota to cover whilst Ginette was on holiday). These grave features are a reminder that people have always loved local wildlife.

The FoHC completed their fourth and final free public tour of the cemetery this year on the 26th of July and this means we have welcomed just under 100 people on cemetery tours this year and over 500 have been on the tours in total. Donations made at the time of booking for the two July tours made over £50 for Hitchin Festival.

FofHC look forward to the rest of summer with fingers crossed that the drought abates soon and helps to make the cemetery turn a bit greener.