The first national database to record all the natural and manmade treasures of burial grounds, from the giant Victorian urban cemeteries to little country churchyards, is to be created with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.



The grant will be announced on Monday to help record and preserve rare plants and animals in danger of extinction across most of Britain, threatened by development and modern agriculture, but still flourishing among the gravestones in an estimated 20,000 burial grounds in England and Wales.



The gravestones themselves are home to 700 of the 2,000 species of lichens in the UK, many found nowhere else, as well as slowworms, voles, toads, bees and butterflies and myriad bird species.

“So much work has been done, by many different organisations, charities, churches and volunteers, from counting grass and flower species to archaeological work, recording tombstone inscriptions and photographing ancient churches – but there is no one place you can go to find all this information,” said Harriet Carty, director of the Shropshire-based Caring for God’s Acre, which will receive almost £600,000.

Buttercup identification at Whitton church in Shropshire. Photograph: Heritage Lottery Fund

“In many parishes burial grounds are the only patch of unimproved species-rich grassland, full of wild flowers that have almost vanished from our gardens and hedges. Many people just don’t realise what a resource these burial grounds are – bird watchers think of heading for the nearest wildlife reserve; they don’t think of picking up their binoculars and sitting on a tombstone in the nearest graveyard.”

The tiny charity, which has just four part-time volunteer workers, will work with dozens of partner organisations including the churches, Historic England and Natural England, to link together information that has already been compiled, and recruit volunteers to collect more.

“These are precious places,” Carty said. “They deserve to be celebrated and cherished.”