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Christmas wreaths and decorations
 
Please remove all above items from graves by Friday 7th February.
 
After that date they will be removed by church volunteers.
 
The Church Wardens.

 St James' Church welcomes everyone to enjoy the churchyard. You are most welcome to bring your four-legged friends with you! We believe everyone (and their pets)  should be able to experience the beauty of the rolling Cheshire countryside, and enjoy the majesty of the building of St James' church together with the  churchyard  to enable those who seek solace or a time for personal contemplation or prayer the opportunity to do so. However, we must ask that you keep your accompanying four-legged friends on a leash at all times, please. Sadly,there have been one or two occasions of dogs causing distress to others within the churchyard. We also must remind you that we cannot under any circumstances accept dog fouling within the churchyard grounds. As with all churchyards they are consecrated areas of land. We would also like to remind you that animal waste is highly dangerous and poses a …

At long last our summer appears to have arrived, providing ample opportunities to enjoy long summer days with glasses of bubbly and sizzling barbecues. Sounds good doesn't it? Unfortunately, other things can and do interrupt this glorious picture such as gardening and keeping gardens in check - the life of a churchyard is no exception. St James' Church is blessed to have a few acres of green space which sadly is rapidly becoming rarer in our world.

Did you know that the hedgerows throughout Britain created over thousands of years signified livestock barriers & property boundries up and down the land and form rich habitats for many varieties of flora and fauna? These hedgerows also show off an unrivalled landscape across Britain which entice not only thousands of species of insects, and other wildlife and plants but they also posess extremely powerful naturally occurring properties. If managed correctly these hedgerows  could potentially provide some of the  vital defences to help ward off the effects of climate change especially carbon capture and rewilding (which is what we are working on in our church grounds at St James').

It is claimed by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology that Britain has 400,000km of historic hedges - enough to go around the globe 10 times!

When available you could arrange a tower climb with our Tower Bell Captain …

Please remove any Christmas ornaments (and other non-compliant artefacts) placed on graves no later than the 2 Feb. This is to ensure we are compliant with the churchyard regulations as posted on the noticeboards and found here https://www.chester.anglican.org/support-services/churches/churchyards/churchyard-regulations-2007 (specifically sections 14 & 15 subsection 5).

Any non-compliant artefacts still on graves post 2 Feb will be removed and disposed of.

Thank you in advance.

Churchwardens.

There will be no green waste collection until March 2024.

Please take your waste home. Do not use the black bin for green waste.

Thank-you.

The Church Wardens

(Photo credit: Brian Inall)

The work to resurface the footpaths through the St James' churchyard has now been completed. 

We are sure that everyone will be pleased with the results and that you will enjoy walking along the new smooth surface! 

We would like to thank everyone so much for helping  to fund this work, and to thank you all for your patience while the work has been undertaken.

Churchwardens

St James' Church

The footpaths at the rear of the churchyard (north side) are to be re-laid.

The work will begin on Monday 31 July and will continue for approximately 2 weeks. Consequently, part of the churchyard will be closed until the work is completed. We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause. If you have any questions please contact the Rector.

(01244 335663)

We were thrilled to hear this morning at prayers that since we have begun rewilding the churchyard, golden (I think) chaffinch's have started to appear in a neighbour's garden.  Rather than provide a picture of one from the internet, I am awaiting a live record from said garden! 

I am reminded, with thanksgiving, of the work and words of Mike, Bettie, Jonathan and Archdeacon Ian on the issue of rewilding churchyards. If you are interested, check out the churchyard working party page on our website.