Moorgate Cemetery

Owner:  Rotheram Borough Council  

Managed  with Friends of Moorgate C emetery  with Boston Park

Site Details    

Walker:  Steve Branch      Distance 1209m    Altitude 100m   Walk time: 35mins 

Dating back to victorian times the cemetary  with mature tree lined avenues and blocks of graves with neatly cut grass cut has many wilder thickets of Bramble, Holly and Ivy  and is a haven for woodland butterflies 

Sections

S1  From the entrance  past mature trees towards SW corner and large areas of graves  where Dog Violet is often the dominant species and the stone walls covered with Ivy is largely a sunny area and well sheltered

S2 Entrance to a large  open parkland area with specimen trees turn and head east  in the shadow of mature trees. Good numbers of Speckled wood and teh most Holly Blue are seen here

S3  A meandering walk underneath trees but with small open sunny areas with some scrub  towards the Chapel contains a good variety of grassalnd species and Speckled woods are at their most common

S4 Loops around a more planted area and a block of Buddleia bushes passes north of the chappel and then in shadow under soem mature Beech  heading toowards the  path with violets present where shade is not  too heavy .

S5 From the path head back under the trees towards the northern boundary path and then east to the  northern corner

S6 heading south in  shade of mature trees on teh eastern boundary towards  a   clearing, circle the clearing around scrubby patch heading south

S7  head south down the eastern boundary  and around the wide loop back towards the chapel 

S8 From the Chapel returning to teh entrance


2023 Results

County wide 2023 results reflect  the 2022 Heat and drought  with Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock nearly halved for the second year against their 5 year average. Red Admiral arrived in force in July and took advantage of soft nettle growth of the rains and had their best year ever. Drought sensitive species on thin soils were badly hit,  particularly Dark -green Fritillary and Northern Brown Argus but also Ringlet, Green-viened White and Small Heath.  Less drought affected species along with the hottest June on record built even more on gains last year leading to Comma, Brimstone, Holly Blue and most Browns  having a fantastic year reaching all time highs. A increase of 9% overall was mostly due to sheer numbers of Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers ment 2023 nearly pipped 2014 as best year in modern times.  Most noticeable was the large differeces between moisiture retaining mineral soils of the valleys and thin, dry limestone or sandy soils. A large number of damp grassland, hedgerow and woodland  dominated sites benefitted hugely with 3 sites seeing more than 50% increase . A smaller number of thin, chalky, sandy or craggy sites did badly some down up to 25%.

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