Churchyard

A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language, this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird.

In England, the fact that in an open field village there were very few fenced areas meant that the yew trees needed for longbows were commonly grown in the churchyard since the foliage is poisonous to cattle.

Churchyards can be host to unique and ancient habitats because they may remain significantly unchanged for hundreds of years.

While churchyards can be any patch of land on church grounds, historically, they were often used as graveyards (burial places).

Use of churchyards as a place of burial

Historically the most common use of churchyards was as a consecrated burial ground known as a graveyard. Graveyards were usually established at the same time as the building of the relevant place of worship (which can date back to the 6th to 14th centuries) and were often used by those families who could not afford to be buried inside or beneath the place of worship itself. However, many churchyards in Northwestern France and in the UK may predate the establishment of the Christian church there today. Most headstones and other memorials are of the 17th century at the earliest, as ground would often be reused for further burials and only some families could afford any memorials.