Churches are important roosting sites for bats and St Andrew’s is home to a long-established maternity colony of Natterer’s bats.
The church is now working with the Bats in Churches project to find out how the bats are using the church and to find sustainable solutions to reduce the mess, smell and nuisance without harming the bats. Bat surveys will take place this year (postponed from 2020)
This will be an exciting project for the whole village and an opportunity to learn more about our resident bats.
Whissendine Parochial Church Council
The Bats in Churches project is a unique partnership between Natural England, the Church of England, the Bat Conservation Trust, the Churches Conservation Trust, and Historic England that was created to address the issues that bats can cause in churches while continuing to protect their roosts. Funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project endeavours to empower church communities to live alongside and appreciate their resident bats by helping to alleviate some of the pressures that they can cause.
https://batsinchurches.org.uk/projects/whissendine-st-andrew/