When we think of endangered species we often think tigers in Asia, koala bears in Australia and bats in Britain. We don’t often think apple trees but there is a rare little apple that was on the brink of extinction when one man made an appeal to save it. That man is Michael Clark who manages Tewin Orchard, has written countless books on fruit trees and British wildlife and helped set up the Hertfordshire Orchard Initiative.
As we are planning a community orchard at Heartwood I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out more about local variety fruit trees and how we can help to save-guard the vulnerable species by planting them in our new orchard. I’ll let you know how I get on and don’t forget that you can help us to name the new orchard by emailing us at heartwood@woodlandtrust.org.uk or by writing to us at Heartwood, The Woodland Trust, Autumn Park, Grantham, NG31 6LL.
I think it’s a wonderful idea to plant the rarer species of fruit trees.
Knowing the exact location of the orchard (which I know you haven’t decided upon) would help with naming it. When you love and know every square metre of the area then the precise location makes a huge difference in giving the orchard a meaningful name. Without knowing the location it seems more along the line of a cynical exercise in currying favour with the community. So come on, don’t ask us to suggest names until you can give us a map reference as to where you are going to plant it.
Unfortunately we won’t know the exact location of the orchard, or anything for that matter, until we have completed the Environmental Impact Assessment and public consultation. We are hoping this will be around September time when we can start to design the site.
We are currently consulting with orchard experts to look at where are the best places to plant the orchard. We do want the local community to feel involved and part of this process and even though you don’t know the exact location we hope that you can help us with this task of naming your community orchard.
well why don’t you save the name competition till after September? If I wanted to suggest ‘Ayres End View orchard’ as a possible name it would be pretty pointless if you can’t see Ayres End. If I wanted to suggest ‘Ten Acre’ orchard it would be pretty pointless if it was eight acres in area. Throughout history people have named places they can see, and named them after people, or geographical/historical features of the location. The local community are not exactly delighted with the name ‘Heartwood Forest’ as it seems to be a marketing-led decision, I think most people thought that it would be called ‘Sandridge Forest’ which is rooted in the location and the historic name of the area. For the orchard why not just call it ‘the orchard’ until we can make a sensible contribution based on looking at the final location after all your consultation.