God’s own gardens: why churchyards are some of our wildest nature sites

Peaceful, unpolluted and often left untouched for centuries, a growing green church movement is helping these havens of biodiversity thrive

They are in nearly every village, town and city across the UK, thousands of church buildings peppering the landscape. But while many may no longer be in regular use, the churchyards surrounding them - quiet, peaceful and often ancient - amount to what Olivia Graham, the bishop of Reading, equates to a small national park". The land beyond the church gate is some of the most biodiverse in the UK because it has largely stayed untouched.

A churchyard is a little snapshot of how the countryside used to be," says Somerset Wildlife Trust's Pippa Rayner, who is working on Wilder Churches, a new initiative with the diocese of Bath and Wells to enhance churchyard biodiversity across the county".

The land around Plymouth's St Pancras church has remained relatively untouched for more than 500 years