St. Helen's Church - Maintenance Part III

Day to day maintenance at St. Helen's churchyard

The spring of 2017 had started off in a busy manner, with my exploration of the Sheffield Round Walk and the villages of Norton, Grenoside and Green Moor and - throughout the summer – I continued with the removal of ivy, brambles, bindweed etc. from the boundary  walls and overgrown parts of St. Helen’s church in Treeton.

Cutting back a sycamore sapling

Set in the heart of the Conservation Area in Treeton, St. Helen’s churchyard forms an attractive green space but, with essential maintenance carried out mainly by a couple of elderly members of the diminishing congregation, large sections of the walls and adjoining areas had been untouched for several years, with ivy completely overwhelming them in places.

Removing ivy coming from the old rectory

As I had discovered when removing ivy from many of the standing gravestones and traditional graves, its roots and tendrils penetrate every crevice and it will embed itself into mortar joints of the boundary walls, where these are soft or are failing.

Cutting back ivy to the north boundary wall

With the various boundary walls now largely cleared, the condition of the masonry can now be better assessed and any necessary work undertaken if required - over the years, adjoining trees have displaced sections of wall to the extent that they are becoming unstable.

Cleaning the gate to the old rectory

Using only hand tools, the bulk of the ivy could be removed quite easily but the disposal of its foliage created its own problems. Without a wood shredder available, and the only space for the cuttings being a corner of the churchyard that was used for cleared leaves, a large sand bag proved to be an excellent means of moving them.

Renewed growth of a sycamore sapling

Although there is still the need to cut back or remove long established stumps of well-established sycamore and holly trees and there are parts of the churchyard that grow wild in the summer months, its overall appearance is much improved and its future management and maintenance should now be considerably easier. 

Removing ivy from the wall adjoining the Old Rectory

With some planning and careful management, there is scope to further develop the activities that have been undertaken at the church by children from St. Helen’s Primary School or to further investigate its potential as a Living Churchyard.

Ivy on the wall next to the steps to Church Lane