Botanist and photographer Anna Atkins used cyanotypes in 1843 to document British algae and ferns, making her work the first-ever photographically illustrated book.

Join local artist Ruth Liengaard in creating your own brilliant white on deep-blue print using pressed plants as stencils. 

Susie Smith will lead a walk around the churchyard looking at the different species and talking about the lichens found on the different types of stone. There will also be the opportunity to look at lichens more closely through a microscope with David, who can explain and answer questions about the detailed features that help identify lichen species.

With swift numbers in the UK down by nearly 60% over the past thirty years, a particular concern is the loss of small swift colonies. There are many such colonies in villages across Stroud District and, once a colony is gone, it may be lost forever. Swift projects, led by ‘swift champions’ at the heart of their local community, can spread the word about how best to protect these colonies.

Join Tamsin Bent from Stroud Valleys Project to take a closer look at the minibeasts that live on your doorstep - all sorts of bugs and beasties including insects, spiders and woodlice.

We will put out some traps around the churchyard on Saturday night and see what we might discover on Sunday morning.  With essential help on identification by local entomologist and beetle expert, Jon Davies, we will release the beetles later in the morning.   In order to demonstrate the sheer variety and amazing life-histories of beetles that occur, Jon will also exhibit some of the beetles he has collected and preserved over the years.

Our gardens would not flourish without substantial help from the community of organisms living within the soil that recycle dead plant debris into nutrients important for plant growth. Among these creatures and scarcely visible to the human eye, is the enigmatic Springtail …

Nina and friends will be ready to serve you scrumptious cakes, invigorating tea and coffee and refreshing cold drinks.

Work with local artist Maxine Relton to make your own spectacular mask for parties and celebrations, or just for plain fun.  The masks will be based on the striking markings of the beautiful daytime moth the Scarlet Tiger.

July is the peak month for moths!  Most moths fly at night but no-one really knows why they are attracted to light at night.  So the best way to find out what moths are using our church grounds is to draw them to the light by putting out light ‘traps’.

What nature treasures can you find around the church and in the old graveyard?  Horsley Nature Group has created an iSpy recording sheet showing pictures of flowers, trees, insects, small mammals that you are likely to spot in the summer, in and around Horsley. 

Let’s see and hear what bats are flying around St Martin’s Church! Bat detectors provided. Outdoor clothes and footwear needed. Torch is useful.