A CHURCHYARD conservation charity with its roots in Leominster has invited the Prince of Wales to come and get his hands dirty.

There’s no cheek in that invitation, as Prince Charles has just agreed to be the charity’s president.

Updates on the work done by Caring for God’s Acre (CfGA) have been winging their way to Clarence House for a while now.

This week, to crown it all, Prince Charles wrote back agreeing to become the charity’s first ever president and possibly help move its work onto a national level.

Not bad going for a pilot scheme started in South Shropshire back in 1997.

Since then parishes across the Hereford diocese – many of them among the most rural in the country – have been testifying to the value of CfGA over the decade it has operated as an independent charity.

Going national has been on the cards since 2008 when CfGA changed its constitution to allow work beyond the diocese where any group required advice or support.

Right now, though, the volunteers are still getting their heads around a royal president – who has agreed to stay in place for at least the next five years.

“We are absolutely thrilled the Prince of Wales has chosen us as one of his charities,” said Sue Cooper, CfGA manager.

“He presently supports around 400 charities, so it is a great honour to have been selected ,” she said.

Sue is sure that the royal link will resonate well beyond those “quiet corners”

where CfGA does its work.

There are some 10,000 churchyards that need work within the Church of England alone and many more of other faiths and denominations.

To CfGA, the conservation and enhancement of churchyards is beyond any perceived divides. Its teams work with community and special interest groups alike, drawing on available talent.

Sue says there is no other comparable organisation doing what CfGA gets done – addressing both the nature conservation potential and the built heritage of churchyards and promoting their potential as community resources.

Last year, for instance, CfGA saw its work feature in the Church of England's national environmental campaign Shrinking the Footprint through the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity.

The range of plants and animals that make churchyards their home are a surprising feature of many local wildlife audits.

Sue goes as far as to say churchyards are “living sanctuaries” for such wildlife as well as offering a walk-through encyclopaedia of local history.

But amid all this, the primary purpose of a churchyard is not forgotten with CfGA helping parishes plan the sensitive management of such sites as places of peace for burial and quiet reflection.

They are a good test of the practical too, including the honing of old-school skills.

Dry stone and lime mortared walling or grassland scything are two-day courses offered by CfGA that are filled almost as soon as advertised.

Ahead of the royal letter, the highlight of Sue’s week had been feedback for a 24- hour challenge CfGA met in St Weonard’s churchyard where the Heritage Lottery-funded churchyard task team recorded all the species of wildlife – from bats to bees, mosses to mammals – on midsummer’s day.

“Perhaps the prince will join us one day to see and experience what we do,”

added Sue.