Villagers hoping orchard project will come to fruition

Jacky Scott-Combes and a couple of other people have thought about the possibility of an orchard for several years.

Jacky explained: “I worked on the old Rauceby hospital site for about 10 years, I could see the beautiful old orchard from my office window.

"That orchard had been established when they set up the original hospital site in about 1906, like most of those big hospitals there was a farm as part of the site and with it an orchard of fruit trees, with many different old varieties. Despite efforts the heritage did not withstand the development of the site for housing in the early 2000's. I wanted to see the revival of native fruit trees, especially in our current age.”

She came across information about the grants from the King’s Coronation Living Heritage Fund and seized her opportunity.

Jacky said: “I only had a few days to get the application in. I did contact our parish council, Wilsford Community Land Trust and the allotments group in the village, who I thought may all be interested.

“Community groups and parish councils could only make bids to the Fund by working through their district or other Unitary Authority, hence my approach to Ania Campbell, Climate Change Officer at NKDC. Ania was amazingly supportive and worked very hard to ensure she put the bid into Defra on time.

"I supplied all the research into a likely site, costs for the different elements of establishing an orchard, trees, equipment for present and long-term management, deer fencing, materials needed to set up the orchard in the first couple of years (manure).”

Successful bids of between £10,000 and £50,000 to establish either mini-woods or community orchards in different parts of Britain were announced in November and Jacky’s Wilsford bid was successful in getting £15,100.

She has since met with Ania and her colleague, Steffi Wilkinson, Community Climate and Biodiversity Officer where they outlined the time line for the project and tasks needed to complete.

The idea is to develop a protected space for fruit trees, native to Britain. A range of fruit trees including heritage varieties, trees we rarely see now such as mulberry, quince, medlars as well as apples, pears, plums and gages.

The orchard will be an educational resource, a bio-diverse habitat, perhaps encouraging a return of less frequently seen birds, plants and insects to the orchard environment. It will be a chance to study the impact of changing trends in climate on different trees, seeing which varieties do best.

Jacky said it will be a community resource, providing fruit which villagers can all share in. Apple juice and cider are future possibilities when the trees are mature.

It can also be a place that has social activities such as apple pie making, apple bobbing. Social activities may well revive old customs and traditions, Wassailing, around Christmas and the New Year, with music, song

and the hanging of toast dipped in cider, to attract insects that might otherwise settle into the trees, attracting birds that will eat the unwanted insects.

She added: "The trees themselves will provide an opportunity to learn the skills of maintaining trees in good health, useful in our climate-changing world where food needs to come from closer to our homes.”

Via the parish newsletter she sent out a 'Ballot of Interest', asking people to respond with what they would like to be involved with in setting up and maintaining the orchard, as well as food, drink and support for those working on the tasks.

There will be people who have experience in orchards who can assist locals and the district council will support the creation of the orchard.

She said she had so far received seven replies from people in the community interested in helping at the setting up stage.

But Jacky said: “Our first task is to find a location for the orchard, I do hope this will be in the village area.”

The parish council, as managing trustees of the playing field, which belongs to the village and has Fields in Trust status, did not think a section of the field was a suitable location for the orchard.

And so Jacky and the team are pursuing a number of possibilities in the parish.

If this does not work then in a couple of months Ania and Steffi will look further afield in North Kesteven to see if another parish or group would like to use the £15,000 funding to establish an orchard.

The orchard needs to be planted by the end of March 2025. This gives 2024 for planning and organization of materials and trees.

Jacky said: “We would aim to plant late in 2024, early in 2025 with the intention to have an opening celebration in early spring 2025.”

Following the ‘Ballot of Interest’ in December there is now a group of interested volunteers. The first meeting will be on Tuesday, February 13, 7.30pm at 11 Main Street, Wilsford, which is next door to the Plough. If you are

interested to go along, call 01400 231062.