A PROJECT to help Herefordshire parishes care for their churchyards has turned its attention to the Wye Valley.

Caring for God's Acre (CGA) aims to support local parochial church councils in the management of their churchyard to enable them to become places of great natural and historic interest and provide a focus for rural community life.

CGA officers have now teamed up with the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty unit to promote its work in the southern reaches of the county.

Projects are many and varied depending upon need and can include anything from producing a management plan for conservation work to surveys of important plants and animals or the production of leaflets and displays to inform the public.

In Woolhope, the PCC is already developing an initiative that it hopes will include constructing a new footpath using local materials, a bench and some essential work on old lime trees.

Funding for the refurbishment is being sought from the Mercia Environmental Fund, which is financed by the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.

Andrew Blake, Wye Valley AONB officer, said: "The project is extremely important to conserve the treasures which can be found in churchyards.''