St.Mary's Churchyard

St Mary's Churchyard is situated directly behind St Mary's Church in Rawmarsh itself. It has not been used as a churchyard for quite a number of years and has been poorly maintained resulting in the area becoming rather overgrown. Covering quite a large area it is bordered on two sides by houses and on the other two sides merges into fields, rough scrubland and the far end of the St Marys Churchyard recording area. The churchyard contains what is probably the best area of mature, broadleaved woodland in Rawmarsh. The woodland is very open allowing alarge number of grasses, flowers, scrub plants and ivy to become established and the age of the trees means that there is a significant amount of dead wood resulting in a rich diversity of insect life.

The habitat type provided by the mature trees and dead standing wood provides an ideal habitat for several woodland species of birds with Treecreeper and Great Spotted woodpeckers regularly seen and large numbers of Tits and Finches throughout the year. Wildflowers, fungi, and insects also abound with 17 species of hoverflies recorded to date.

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Birds