St Wolfrida's, Horton, Flockreport.

Money is tight as the church is saving up to rectify the damage done by the death watch beetle which is eating the internal structure of the ancient church dating back to having rectors from the 1300s and a recorded building from 1401. Not being able to afford the old unattended graveyard looked after... and the weeds getting out of control, the Church Warden Phillip Bailey had the idea to reintroduce livestock to help. He says "There were sheep in St.W’s on & off forever in the past hundreds of years..The absence of them has been since circa early millennium because the farmer that loaned the last lot moved away from the area. St.W is a rural church in a rural setting therefore we should be as simple & as close to the natural world as the church is humble. St.W is not a pristine clean town church with pristine clean parishioners, we are whatever the seasons bring-sun, rain, mud and wind- with animals"

The parish secretary, Ruth Marshall happens to also be experienced with shepherdess work and so using her contacts, sourced some goats and then through the goats owner Alessandra Savoca we sourced a rare weed eating sheep breed called Ronaldsay from Vicky Walters the breeder, that have now been bought by the Ruth and Alessandra Savoca. All the locals, especially the next door neighbour and verger Jackie all keep an eye on the livestock and feed and water them daily. There are 14 members of the "flockwatch" team that help make the sheep project successful along with an extended neighbourhood team of volunteers who manage the rest of the graveyard gardening. A real community spirit in the heart of the Wimborne countryside.