Wildlife & sustainability

We have worked with the Wildlife Trust to develop a long-term conservation plan, as part of our commitment to sustainable management. Our aim is to create a beautiful native woodland that will offer connectivity with two existing neighbouring woodlands helping to improve migration corridors for wildlife.

Our team of dedicated groundsmen ensure that a wide variety of trees, plants and wildlife thrive throughout the year.

Our grounds may appear unkempt at certain times of the year. For example, the grass may be left long and vegetation uncut in some areas. This is to protect nesting birds and create natural habitats that are more favourable for wildlife, such as butterflies and bees. A 5-acre wildflower and grass meadow has recently been sown to attract bees, butterflies and other wildlife to the area.

Bulbs and flower planting

We take care to remove any unnatural materials left behind at our grounds and request that only native plants that comply with our ‘native and wild’ planting guide are planted or sown on burial or cremated remains plots.

Details of the plants that can be planted at Clayton Wood natural burial ground can be seen below.

Clayton Wood Natural Burial Ground – Planting Guide

Trees

Clayton Wood is working with the Wildlife Trust to ensure there is an ongoing programme of appropriate native tree planting to ensure we create a woodland habitat that is in keeping with the local area.

To ensure the long-term health of the woodland and safe access for visitors we regularly undertake pruning and on occasion the cutting down trees. When any tree cutting or clearance work is undertaken, we ensure the waste wood is used to provide log pile habitats for invertebrates and amphibians.

To avoid any possible upset to families and for the benefit of all, trees will not be planted on individual graves but will be planted around them. Customers do not own an individual tree but will have several nearby.

Birds and other wildlife

Boxes have been installed around Clayton Wood to provide homes for birds and bats. The bird boxes are designed to attract great, blue, marsh, coal and crested tits, nuthatches and tree and house sparrows. The wider site is home to species of dunnock, song thrush, goldfinch, blackbird and robin. There has also been recent reports of hearing the very rare song of the Nightingale’s from areas of scrub growing along the eastern boundary.

Pond life

A wetland area has been created with a number of small wildlife ponds in ‘Clayton Meadow’ and a number of measures have been taken to naturalise the main pond there, which has a healthy invertebrate community with water boatmen, pondskaters, cased caddis, damselfly larvae, beetle larvae, water hoglouse, gammarus and snails.

Newts

The Wildlife Trust conducted amphibian surveys in 2016 and we were delighted to find great crested and palmate newts in the channel leading into the pond. A healthy population has been discovered in the wetland area in more recent surveys. Great crested newts are a protected species under wildlife law so should not be disturbed if seen.

Bats

Our bats might include crevice dwelling species such as all three species of pipistrelle bat (Common, sopranoand Nathusius’), Noctule and Daubenton’s bat.