It is now a year since the beginning of the first lockdown. 2020 started with great optimism. Friends of St Giles Hill Graveyard finally had insurance to cover our work in the graveyard. This is a must have item, to cover our volunteers working in the graveyard. It is also needed to get recognition as a charity and as an enabler when making applications for financial support. Our insurance was purchased with money raised by St Giles Hill Residence Association. Thank you for your support. In April HMRC recognized FSGHG as a charity for tax purposes opening more door for funding. Then on 23rd March 2020 we had Lockdown owing to Covid-19. Ever since we have had restrictions in numbers of people allowed to meet.
We had a full calendar of monthly work visits from the Probation service who have helped us make good progress over the last few years. We were planning an open day at the graveyard in March. But then came Covid 19. The open day had to be postponed. The Probation Service community payback activities were suspended. We were expecting a severe, short term, impact to our maintenance programme.
Fortunately, we had applied for a grant from Winchester City Town Forum to purchase equipment. We were awarded £500 and using these funds we purchased a good quality petrol driven lawnmower. Initially it was difficult to use such machinery in the graveyard owing to a profusion of old stumps that constituted trip hazards and During the previous 2 years we has been old stumps and applying socially distancing policy have been able to organize volunteers either singly or in groups of 2 or 3 from the same household for an hour’s exercise working in the graveyard now and again. This has enabled us to keep up with our maintenance programme. When restrictions were less, we have also had volunteering visits from the Rotary Club and students from Mountbatten school in Romsey and several small family groups.
In spring we purchased a power lawnmower with a grant from Winchester City Council Town Forum which greatly increased our productivity. We are aiming to add more power equipment in the future with a second grant recently given to us by the Town Forum.
The value of this open space has proved itself over the Covid-19 summer with much increased numbers of people visiting St Giles Hill Graveyard. During the lockdown we had many visitors some exercising, some walking their dogs, but many come because they are interest in the heritage or wildlife to be seen in the graveyard.
At the end of 2020 It had come to light that the graveyard was still open for burials and needed to be officially closed. The closure would enable the church to request the transfer of maintenance responsibility to Winchester City Council under section 215 of the Local Government Act 1972. A public notice was therefore placed in the Hampshire Chronicle by the church on behalf of the Secretary of State for Justice on Thursday 28th January giving notice of the closure and once the public notice period has passed, the proposal would be put to the privy council to decide. The closure has now taken place enabling the church to request the transfer.
Winchester City Council were swift in their response. The Friends had alerted the church to a to a tree that has partially blew down in the storm before Christmas and was in a dangerous state. Tree surgeons were swiftly on the spot to deal with the situation. We have also been contacted by the WCC Open Spaces Department concerning ongoing maintenance and had an initial discussion with two representatives from WCC regarding our management plan.
As lockdown eases and we get back to some normality we will be in contact with a range of volunteer activities for those interested in this Ancient Graveyard.