Volunteers and Conservation

Our work is done under the guidance of SCC ecology team based at the Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre, and the Burial and Bereavement Services of Southampton City Council. Volunteers regularly meet to remove litter, bramble, knotweed and saplings, clear and maintain graves, and paint railings. At particular seasons, such as in bird nesting periods our work is restricted.

Please contact Gillie Blake on 023 8034 9414 for details of becoming a task force member. We normally meet on the first Saturday of each month at the Nonconformist Chapel, not far from the cemetery entrance in Cemetery Road, off Northlands Road, Southampton SO15 7NN at 10 am. We provide tools, gloves and coffee and cheerful friendly company.

We welcome volunteers but ask first that you become a member in order that you are covered by our insurance.

There are other opportunities for volunteers to help in various ways such as archive research, contributing to publications, staffing exhibition stands, acting as a guide on a public walk or escorting individuals to look for a family grave.

We especially would like to train up more guides as some of our walks attract large numbers necessitating splitting off into smaller groups. In these instances an experienced supporter would accompany the guide so a detailed geographical knowledge of the layout is not essential.

Some of our recent clearing work is described here, as ‘Project Tidy’