The churchyard at the Tudor church of All Saints East Horndon has been severely overgrown for years as we have not had the volunteers or the funds to stay on top of the jungle, and most of the graves disappeared under several feet of brambles, weeds and self seeded trees.

Many of the graves are between 50 - 150 years old, and often no longer have relatives who can care for the graves, so it falls to a small band of volunteers to try and bring the hidden graves back into the light. The church also has no congregation and relies totally on volunteers and donations to carry out the groundworks.

We thankfully now have an amazing volunteer groundskeeper who has been carrying out backbreaking work to uncover all the graves in the churchyard, many of which had been hidden under thick growth for decades. We now need to keep on top of the work already carried out by him and for that we need your help.

We are asking for £500 to buy and replace tools, such as brush cutters, lawnmower, petrol, weed killer, building suppliers to build new fencing, as well as flower bulbs to be able to create a colourful display for Spring.

We also regularly hold Community Volunteering days where people of all ages and abilities are invited to come and help us get the church yard looking its best.

Check out our Facebook page for some amazing photos and to keep an eye on any future events :)

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/allsaintseasthorndon

Church website: https://www.all-saints-east-horndon.co.uk/

Photos credit: Ricci Fothergill