Introduction
In Cemetries, designed and natural features are combined to create unique and important landscapes. The cemetery design interest could include the layout of the site with avenues, roads and footpaths, boundaries, and burial plots; the building of impressive gateways and special buildings such as chapels, mortuaries ans shelters; the introduction of monuments; and planting with trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that evoke mourning and contemplation. In time, this artificial environment is softened, overlaid and sometimes obliterated by the growth of the original planting, and by the natural arrival of other plants. Wildlife colonises these quiet, green spaces, which quickly become important habitats for plants and animals.
As an important record of the social history of the area it serves, a cemetery may be said to contain the biography of a community. Its design and layout reflect fashions of the time when it was first opened; different religions and denominations are characterised by different styles of commemoration; the inscriptions on the monuments contain important information about the people who are buried there. Different types of cemetery have special significance to the people who made and maitain them, and each makes its own special contribution to our heritage. As general interest in genealogy and family history grows, so does the importance of cemeteries to the wider community as repositories of biographical information.

Monuments and buildings
The inscriptions on memorials, the design of monuments, the architecture of buildings and the landscape design shed light on past social customs and events and combine to make a cemetery an irreplaceable historical resource. Erectin elaborate memorials (sometimes commissioned from the leading sculptors and architects of the day) was a way not only to commemorate the dead but also to show or command respect. Some exceptional monuments are individually listed for their historic or sculptural importance, but all memorials possess some value as tributes to past lives and as visual components in the special cemetery landscape. Knowing what we value now, and will value in the future, is one of the greatest challenges English Heritage faces as it begins to address our sepulchral and memorial inheritance.
Chapels, lodges, walls and other structures are the largest architectural presences within cemeteries. In some cases, notably where a cemetery has been surrounded by later suburban development, the cemetery lodge and chapel may be the only architecturally significant buildings in the neighbourdhood, and thus provide important landmarks that help to create a snse of place. Many cemetery buildings have fallen out of use and have suffered from a consequent lack of maintenance and from vandalism. They form key visual elements in the overall design and deserve careful upkeep.

Landscaping
Cemetery landscapes were carefully designed to create sites fitted for the dead and to evoke meaning. An idealised landscape setting could represent the Elysian Fields of ancient myth, a catacomb the exemplary lives of the early Christians, or a carefully tended garden the Arcadian tranquillity of te afterlife. Planting was often designed to enhance teh symbolism of the landscape.Yew trees linked the cemetery with the more traditional burial sites of ancient churchyards and, along with other evergreen trees, signified both eternal life and the sombre shades of grief. Weeping willows expressed mourning, while oak and laurel brought to mind the wreaths with which heroes were celebrated in Antiquity. The more ordered, grid-like layouts of the mid-nineteenth century cemetery relate to a more rational approach to the question of cemetery design. Eminent landscape designers were commissioned to lay out cemeteries.It is only by understanding these landscapes that we can tend them appropriately and hand them on to future generations. The most historically important designs are being added to English Heritage's Register of Hisotric Parks and Gardens.

Wildlife and the natural heritage
Cemeteries were often developed from green field sites, and many now have remnant habitats and features like healths and hedges. As pockets of countryside locked within urban areas and as inherently quiet places, cemeteries can provide a range of habitats that can support a diversity of wildlife. The common toad, hedgehog, woodmouse, deer, badger, and a chorus of birds such as woodpecker, wren, and blackcap, are found in cemeteries, as well as a surprising variety of wildflowers, fungi and lichens. Some cemeteries can be locally important sanctuaries for uncommon or protected species, such as bats, spotted flycatcher, slow-worm, stage beetle, and orchids, that are otherwise rare in our towns and cities. For example, Broadway Cemetery, Peterborough, has the largest population of meadow saxifrage in Cambridgeshire; Morden Cemetery has the only green winged orchids in London; The Rosary in Norwich has heather and wood speedwell, which originate from the days when the site was heathland lying oustside teh city.
Cemeteries can also form an important part of the "green corridor" networks of parks, gardens, and other open spaces that enable wildlife to move from site to site and to the countryside beyond. As more cemeteries are surveyed, their nature conservation interest is revealed and many have been designated important sites for conservation.

Local amenity
Cemeteries are not just communities of the dead; they are thoughtful places, reflecting the impact of time on humankind and our efforts to escape oblivion.They make an important contribution to the local environment and to the quality of life of the local community. The principal function of any cemetery i to provide a place to inter and commemorate the dead, and a focal point for mourning and religious observance.However, because they provide green oases within built-up areas, cemeteries are aslo places for rest and contemplation in a more general sense, offering opportunities for fresh air and exercise, or simply a place for quiet communion with Nature. The coexistence of Nature and Art, sometimes in an uneasy alliance, accounts for much of the charm of such places.
The mature trees found in cemeteries screen out noise and pollution from surrounding roads, making them among the few places where silence can be enjoyed in the increasingly noisy urban envrironment. Because they are free of traffic, they can provide safe, attractive routes for pedestrians, especially the elderly and those with small children.
Special interest groups can use cemeteries for activities that are compatible with the character of a burial site, such as bird watching, sketching, botany and educational visits. Cemetery Friends Groups offer a number of ways for local people to get involved: social and fund-raising events, genealogical or family history research, business or private sponsorship and volunteering for activities such as clearing bramble,leading walks and running open days. Organisations such as the National Association of Memorial Masons also run initiatives such as their school scheme Hunt the Daisy.
We need to take a rounded approach in our efforts to conserve and manage cemeteries, taking into account all their special meanings and characteristics.