The New Bat Caves: UK’s Historic Churches Now Home to Protected Species
LONDON — It is not just worshippers who are attracted to the United Kingdom’s network of traditional stone churches. Increasingly, they are also playing host to hundreds of bats.
Research carried out by the Bat Conservation Trust has revealed that over 8,000 churches provide bats with a home. The reasons for this popularity are easy to find – churches offer lots of safe, hidden places to roost within the nooks and crannies of church roof spaces. The surrounding areas offer plenty of insects to eat.
As a result, churches are proving irresistible. Over 12 bat species representing two-thirds of the native bat species, including some of the rarest, now live in churches. In the West Country, DNA analysis of droppings has revealed that some churches are home to the rare grey long-eared bat, living alongside the more common brown long-eared bats. Often, there are several different types of bats happily cohabiting the same church. It is believed that some of the roosts have been used for centuries.
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It’s not just limited to Anglican churches. The National Bat Helpline has received queries from Catholic churches, Friends’ Meeting Houses, chapels, Buddhist and Hindu temples.
Unfortunately, the presence of these flying creatures can prove disruptive to church activities, especially in churches with upholstered pews and fabric furniture. They can be somewhat messy houseguests.
Bat droppings and bat urine can cause damage to carpets, brass and woodwork, as well as making floors and surfaces unpleasant to use. Cleaning can be very time-consuming. In severe cases, such as at the Church of St. Lawrence in Northamptonshire, about three hours north from London, the size of its nationally important colony of Natterer’s bats made cleaning so hard that worship actually had to stop on the site.
Removing the bats is not possible. Bats are protected by British law, and it is illegal to remove them, destroy their nesting areas, or even disturb them. Bats and humans have to co-exist. As the Church of England points out, “Bats are a vital part of our native wildlife, and part of God’s creation.”
Educational campaigns have helped raise awareness of the need to co-exist. Churches have been encouraged to undertake educational activities with children and other local community groups. For over a year, a multi-media art installation entitled “On a Wing and a Prayer” travelled throughout the U.K., attracting thousands of visitors. It now occupies a permanent home in St. Peter’s Church in Wintringham, North Yorkshire. Made up of four silky, transparent printed panels featuring bats, poetry and church photography, it is set alongside a soundscape featuring bat calls slowed down so as to be audible to the human ear.
Advice on practical, bat-friendly solutions is provided by the Bats in Churches website. It recommends placing sheets or covers over areas that might be damaged, or using a wax coating on brass objects. Such solutions are not expensive, and grants can be obtained from the Bat Conservation Trust.
In Cambridgeshire, the church of St. John the Baptist in Keystone is home to a large colony of bats. It sought assistance from the Bats in Churches program to deal with a major issue concerning one of the tombs. An extremely rare sculpture, the tomb shows an emaciated body with its digestive organs removed. Bat droppings and urine were causing it to decay. Bats in Churches organised a full conservation clean of the tomb before encasing it in a protective covering to safeguard it for the future.
Special bat roosts can be set up to provide homes for the bats. These might be in the form of bat boxes or even a dedicated area within the church building. At Guestwick church in Norfolk, the sheer number of bats led to the creation of a sealed-off loft conversion sited above the vestry.
CCTV cameras positioned within the loft enable the activities of the bats to be monitored. It has led to some unexpected discoveries. Ecologist Philip Parker said, “We have found in certain weeks during the year there’ll be a hundred bats in here, and then suddenly they will disappear. We don’t know where they go, but they disappear for about 10 days, and then they’ll come back again. And without CCTV, we never knew that.”
The presence of bats can prove beneficial, attracting greater awareness of a particular church. At Guestwick, for example, there are regular nighttime visits by nature groups and members of the public keen to see the bats. During these sessions, infrared and thermal cameras are set up along with audio detectors linked to bat-friendly frequencies.
As night falls, the bats emerge, fascinating their human audiences as they swoop and dive around the church and the surrounding land, while the amplified chatter of bats fills the building.
Angela Youngman is a freelance journalist who has written for a wide range of British and international publications.