A group of volunteers have spent the Big Help Out cuttling the grass in a Skegness churchyard. The project, led on this occasion by the Mayor of Skegness, Coun Adrian Findley, began around two years ago when the Diocese decided to let St Clement's churchyard return to 'God's Acre' to save money and family members complained. Now the volunteers are appealing for more members.
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00:00 [Loud saw noise]
00:05 We're in St Clement's Churchyard in Skegness and it just happens to be the big help out this weekend
00:13 which is also running alongside Volunteers Week.
00:18 But I'm with the Mayor of Skegness here and this has been a project that's been going on for a while hasn't it?
00:26 Yeah, it started about two years ago. We had a really big turnout to start with getting it down to this managing level.
00:37 Since then, it's started off a little bit but there's regular volunteers.
00:41 Recently, a couple of months ago, there's a new guy just joined to help Amanda and Richard Cunnington
00:48 who's been ultimately at it non-stop for two years.
00:51 Obviously with other commitments, I've myself jumped back on again.
00:56 But that was the whole point of it. The whole point of it is that if you can spare an hour of it in a year, that hour is valuable.
01:04 Even if it's just a strim, litter pick, cut a hedge, anything at all is all part of the whole idea of keeping it maintained.
01:13 It's a valuable project.
01:17 And it means a lot to the families because they were very upset, weren't they, initially when the decision was made not to cut the grass in churchyards?
01:28 Yeah, well sadly...
01:29 Turn them to God's pastures, I believe the right phrase for that was.
01:35 Yeah, initially when it was as high as it was, we were very cautious.
01:40 The problem was there was bees' nests, there was wasps, there was wildlife in and out of it.
01:45 So initially it was hard work getting it to this stage.
01:50 But now it's at this stage, maintaining it at this stage is crucial because as you can see now,
01:57 there are fresh flowers on graves that we do see people down here when we're down here.
02:02 Coming down prior to that, you couldn't get them, you couldn't even see the headstones.
02:08 Okay, so come along and join in.
02:11 Please, if you can, every bit of time that you can give us is appreciated.
02:15 So if somebody would like to come along and help you, how would they go about it?
02:19 There is, I mean, we do have a WhatsApp page, we've also got a Facebook group, Facebook page.
02:25 And people, I mean, we've had people search us on the St Clement's and Mary's volunteers page.
02:32 They then message us through that or private message individuals as part of the admin and then come down and contact us that way.
02:40 It's probably the best way.
02:42 I've been watching you busy streaming over there, doing a great job.
02:48 Why have you come along?
02:50 I'm a local lad, obviously.
02:52 I just want to sort of try and help as much as I can.
02:55 Like this is my local graveyard, you know, so to try and keep it looking well.
03:00 I mean, everyone in the community can do that for a couple of hours once every month or so, you know.
03:06 That's what my aim is.
03:08 Have you enjoyed it?
03:09 Yeah, yeah, really much. I love being outdoors anyway, so it gets me out of the house, doesn't it?
03:15 Yeah.
03:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]