St Mary’s churchyard is the biggest green space in Walthamstow Village and one of the biggest green spaces in Walthamstow. It is divided into several sections, including a large area along Vinegar Alley between the Monoux Almshouses and Holy Family Catholic School. In addition to being an ancient graveyard and a place where people still remember loved ones, it’s a working garden site, home to several local and national biodiversity projects, and a haven for bees, insects, birds, bats and animals.

Each Vespers gathering features two periods of silence (a shorter period of silence and then a longer period of silence lasting 10 minutes), a short reflection, a contemplative practice to try and two pieces of choral or instrumental music. We usually have a short Scripture reading and a poem as well. While we draw on 2,000 years of Christian contemplative practice, we believe Vespers holds wisdom for everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs.

This text area could be used to detail a new project or offer more detail about the Churchyard, the boxes below are future dates, which could be live or digital events. The below is copied from the existing page.

Led by our head gardener Tim Hewitt and assisted by John Fairlamb, dozens of local volunteers have in recent years helped make St Mary’s Churchyard a place where Walthamstow gathers to learn about horticulture and wildlife, to plant flowers, and to spend time admiring the diverse range of plants and natural features that make the churchyard such a peaceful place to be (there are also several benches on which to sit in the main bit of the churchyard, which is the area between the church and Ancient House).

The churchyard has bat boxes, beehives maintained by BEE17 Honey (a local non-profit), an RHS-sponsored pond maintained by local volunteers, an ongoing partnership with the award-winning gardening group, Walthamstow Village in Bloom, and we continue to host the successful ‘Burials in Bloom’ project where local gardeners volunteer to tend and plant flowers around certain graves.