National Trust orchard training day at Day's Cottage: A tour of the orchards

Yesterday I went to Day's Cottage in Brookthorpe near Gloucester for an orchard training day. It was hosted by Dave Kaspar (GOG chairman) and Helen Brent-Smith at their Orchard Skills Centre on behalf of the National Trust. The day started with a tour of the orchards, the oldest of which was planted by Helen's great aunt in 1912. In this picture Dave is explaining that this dead tree is the most important tree in the orchard from an ecological viewpoint, due to the value of standing dead wood for invertebrates and the things that feed on them. As you can imagine, I was in my element!


This Newton Wonder apple tree was blown over only recently, but it is far from doomed. The tree will respond to this stress by putting out more roots and over time it will gradually re-align its canopy. I think it is healthy to encourage a more Victorian perspective on tree beauty, where the gnarls and warpings of time are celebrated and admired.


We also visited an old perry pear orchard which had several trees about 150 years old. We were shown how pear trees have very obvious graft marks even in old age. Perry pears have been recorded to live over 350 years, far longer than any apple. Dave explained how they are best left to their own devices and he regularly advises people not to try and prune them. I think the tree pictured is the variety Butt.


They have about 16 acres of orchards around the site that are being managed very sensitively for wildlife with mistletoe, bird and bat boxes, standing dead wood and no chemical inputs. This tree in the foreground has been toppled for a lot longer, and you can see it has recovered its posture quite admirably and still produces fruit. It reminds me of the Blenheim Orange trees at Mount Pleasant.


This is the museum orchard that was started around 15 years ago in partnership with Gloucestershire council and the GOG as a bank of Gloucestershire apple varieties. New varieties are still being found by people like Charles Martell so it's an ongoing project but it is old enough for the trees to be starting to take off. It's so exciting to think of returning in twenty years to see an established orchard and for an apple off each tree...


Here is my friend Freddie, a longstanding volunteer with the Charingworth Orchard Trust and Tanya, a beekeeper with her own company called Apples and Pears. We were pretty pleased to be able to purchase some perry for tasting later on!


The loot. Mistletoe for seeding at home, a perry pear maiden of the variety 'Bergamy' ("pronounce carefully") and superior grog.

Charingworth Orchard Trust in the National Trust orchard newsletter!

This is 'Orchard Matters', a newsletter produced by Kate Merry who is leading the National Trust's recent traditional orchard renaissance. At the end of the summer I sent her an article to include in the Auntumn issue. Just in case you missed it, here it is (let me know if you want me to email an electronic version of the whole newsletter):



Shifty pose? I think so!

Betty Daffurn's orchard legacy at Kemerton

© Copyright David Hawgood and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

The other day I went on a pilgrimage to Daffurn's community orchard in Kemerton. This is the cottage Betty lived in for 94 years. It was the first true community orchard I have visited and looked very carefully maintained. The area has a fantastically motivated and established Conservation Trust that owns several wildlife sites and oversees the management of some 1,280 acres of land around Bredon Hill. The orchard restoration work carried out by the Kemerton Conservation Trust recently received a significant amount of funding from the National Trust. If only all British villages were as well endowed with enlightened perspectives on farming and wildlife.

I think they may have snowdrops, wild daffodils(?) and bluebells in the orchard. To get a true feeling for any community orchard I think you need to meet some of the workers that maintain it. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to prearrange such a visit, but the orchard in itself is very interesting as wildlife sanctuary and piece of local history. I look forward to them releasing the species lists for the orchard from the directory of 45,000 records for the local area!

No one has ever been killed by a sheep. They were doing a good job of keeping the sward down when I visited, which looked distinctly unimproved and herb-rich.

National Trust visits Charingworth orchards

On a fairly damp Wednesday morning Kate Merry, the Orchard Officer for the National Trust, came to Charingworth for her first visit to the orchards. Grahame Fisher (owner), Kate and myself toured both the 1940s and 1920s orchards, braving soggy undergrowth to give Kate an idea of the sites. We also went through the budget of where the money is to be spent over the next year and a half. We have been awarded six thousand pounds to help fund the restoration pruning of all 85 standard and half-standard apple trees, along with bramble removal, strimming and replanting the gaps where trees have died. It was fantastic to finally have a meeting between our funding partner and the landowners.


from right: Kate Merry (National Trust), Grahame Fisher (landowner) and myself.

Kate, Grahame and one of the more stately trees in the 1920s orchard.

Strimming and scything for the National Trust visit

A compact team of three with various tools (some modern, some archaic) on Monday afternoon. We cut a path through the badlands of the lower orchard in preparation for the National Trust's visit next week. Hot but satisfying work followed by a well earned pub pint.


(from right) Will and Freddie, Gloucestershire locals and noble volunteers.