Quakers join forces with Wildlife Trust to benefit nature and community
Quakers in Norton are working with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust to use their burial ground for nature and local people.
Norton Quaker Meeting House, Stockton-on-Tees, is set in land at the heart of a community with one of the widest income disparities anywhere in the UK.
Local Quakers want to ensure people from the surrounding estates, which rank very high on the indices of multiple deprivation, can use the garden, whilst also benefiting wildlife.
But because no-one knows where the bodies are buried in the burial ground, digging in the simple mown lawn is not allowed.
Thanks to the Wildlife Trusts' Nextdoor Nature initiative, Norton Quakers are working with a local youth group on how to use raised beds, planters, bird feeding areas and more.
The Wildlife Trusts' Nextdoor Nature project aims to address inequalities of access to greenspace and nature.
Fifty new community organisers are working to enable communities to take charge of creating and restoring wild places, improving nature connectedness, and providing habitats for wildlife.
Rhiannon Murphy, a Norton Quaker, said: “Quakers are a group that branches off from Christianity. Respecting the nature around you has been quite a core part of that from the get-go."
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, said: “We are called by our faith to show a loving consideration for all creatures and seek to maintain the beauty and variety of the world.
“It is good to see Quakers working with their community to share this vital green space with everyone while also supporting nature."