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St Edmund’s Church in Egleton provides refuge to one of largest maternity colonies of soprano pipistrelle bats




Imagining a churchyard as darkness falls conjures up all sorts of spooky images. Add bats into the mix and you would think you’d be in for a truly frightening night.

But the opposite was true at a community bat count this month, the first to be held at St Edmund’s Church in Egleton.

A tiny church in a tiny village, the nave roof is home to one of the largest maternity roosts of soprano pipistrelle bats in the country. A survey by the Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group in 2022 found 1,324 bats living in the roof space and experts and church goers alike are eager to know if the population is growing.

Counts like this could provide experts with continuing data on the colony and the species, while also giving villagers the chance to live and work with nature.

The church roof has provided a refuge for the bats for many years but in March 2018 part of the nave ceiling collapsed, giving pipistrelles a way into the church.

It wasn’t a harmonious start. The bats messed the pews and had a tendency to die in the aisles – neither pleasant for the parishioners, whose Sunday services are split between Egleton and Hambleton churches.

St Edmund's Church in Egleton
St Edmund's Church in Egleton

In 2019, St Edmund’s joined the Bats in Churches project to seek solutions to the increasingly messy – and smelly – problem. They raised £5,000 to repair the ceiling and work took place in November last year.

The Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group led by Jenny Harris, who lives in nearby Oakham, is monitoring the bats this year and next, to see how their interventions have affected the colony.

Church council member Brian Chester described St Edmund’s as a “beautiful little church, intimate and peaceful”, adding: “We have lived with bats for a long time and we are proud to have one of the biggest maternity colonies here. There are over 1,300 adults, which is an astonishing number, and it is quite something for a little church.

Church member Brian Chester
Church member Brian Chester

“We are keeping a careful eye on them so we can look after the bats while at the same time preserving our little church.”

Until the community bat count took place, it was believed the work had resulted in the bats living happily in the roof as no evidence of them had been seen in the church.

But a couple of bats keen to make the most of the spotlight – quite literally - flapped into the church during a talk before the count. A door was left open to encourage them to leave but by 10.30pm, after an hour of counting, about 30 bats were flying about inside.

A soprano pipistrelle in natural habitat. Photo: istock
A soprano pipistrelle in natural habitat. Photo: istock

During the community count, 10 human participants formed two groups, choosing a spot among the gravestones to lean back and stare at a point on the church wall, above a stained glass window. With a clicker in hand, participants were instructed to count bats as they headed towards Rutland Water reservoir in search of food.

Unlike the American vampire bat species, all those native to Britain feed on insects.

The soprano pipistrelle has a diet of small flies, midges and mosquitoes and a single bat can catch up to 3,000 insects in one evening, so the church’s proximity to Rutland Water is appealing for a species that can hunt up to three miles away from its roost. Bat group member Jenny said there are known to be 10 species of bats feeding around Rutland Water – an incredible number considering there are only 18 native species.

Jenny Harris, from the Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group
Jenny Harris, from the Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group

So-called because of their higher-pitched echolocation calls, the soprano pipistrelles choose churches such as St Edmund’s as roosts because they are well-insulated and have nooks and crannies in which to hide. In autumn they feed intensively before hibernating from the beginning of November to the end of March but, because they are hidden, little is known about whether they are staying put in the winter.

Between 9.15pm and 10.15pm more than 650 bats were counted outside St Edmund’s. There were as many as one every 10 seconds at some points, their tiny silhouettes – they weigh less than a 2p coin – framed against the night sky.

While the community bat count was considered a success by Brian and Jenny, the discovery of the bats inside the church again puts them back in touch with Bats in Churches. Brian said the project had “responded very positively to working together with us to secure both the roost for safety of the bats and the church from further entries”.

A community bat count takes place at St Edmund's Church in Egleton on July 5
A community bat count takes place at St Edmund's Church in Egleton on July 5

The roof will need to be reinspected and possibly undergo more repairs but not until autumn, when the bats have left the maternity roost. It is likely fundraising will be needed again to finance it.

To donate towards the church, which is listed on on Historic England 2022’s At Risk register, visit: https://tinyurl.com/Egletonchurch

The church is open daily and has a display on the bats project, as well as copies of The Little Church Bat book for sale.

Participants at the community bat count at St Edmund's Church in Egleton
Participants at the community bat count at St Edmund's Church in Egleton

To find out more about the Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group, visit www.lrbatgroup.btck.co.uk



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