Orchards, Trees & Orchard Produce
Orchards, Trees & Orchard Produce
Derbyshire information
Julian Brandram has experience of growing fruit in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire and offers advice, consultancy, training, practical help and also supplies traditional varieties of fruit trees. 145 Upper Valley Road, Sheffield S8 9HD +44(0)114 250 9096. He also has a web-site.
Orchards and Community Orchards to visit
Beighton Orchard, off Robin Lane, Beighton, Sheffield. A project to renovate a 70-80 year old orchard of half standard apples, plums, pears and damsons was started in 2004. Sheffield City Council Environmetal Planning section co-ordinates the project with Beighton Environment Group, Sheffield Landscape Trust and two local primary schools, plus expert help comes from Julian Brandram. Budding and grafting is being carried out to perpetuate the varieties of existing trees. Highland cattle are brought in for grazing from June to August helping to keep down invasive species such as bindweed, goosegrass and bramble. Surrounding hedges have been laid to increase security wild life value. Bird boxes, log piles and wildflower planting have also helped to encourage wild life. School children enjoy visits around Blossom Day and Apple Day, and written songs for the orchard. Apples are distributed to schools, visitors to Apple Day and to surrounding residents, any surplus is left for wild life, including a local parakeet. Directions: follow the footpath next to the Methodist Church on Robin Lane for 30m and you will see the metal gates of the orchard. Access during organised events only. For further information contact Sally Pereira, Countrysdie Planning Officer at Sheffield City Council on +44(0)114 273 5030 or sally.pereira[at]sheffield.gov.uk
Calke Abbey, Ticknall, DE73 1LE. Head Gardener - Steve Biggins. The orchard in the 18th century walled garden is located at the eastern end of the lower kitchen garden. This restored orchard contains twenty-three varieties of apples including thirteen varieties that have local provenance originating from the East Midlands. The East Midlands apple varieties at Calke are Annie Elizabeth, Baron Ward, Beauty of Stoke, Bess Pool, Domino, Dumelow's Seedling, Marriage Maker, Mead's Broading, Newton Wonder, Pickering's Seedling, Queen Caroline, Winter Quarrenden and Beeley Pippin. More East Midland Varieties are to be added to the collection after grafting at Brogdale Orchards in Kent: Barnack Beauty, Barnack Orange, Bramley's Seedling, Gratonian, Herring's Pippin, Lamb's Seedling, Nottingham Pippin, Radford Beauty, Saint Aildred, Screveton Golden and Sisson's Workshops Newtown. Tel. +44(0)1332 863822 or look at the National Trust web-site.
Donnisthorpe Community Orchard. With help from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, a Community Orchard of apple trees was planted on parish land in 1999.
In the garden of the Hardinge Arms, Kings Newton, which is on the border with Leicestershire, stands an old apple tree of the local variety Kings Newton Wonder growing in the back garden. One explanation for the variety’s origin is that it was found growing from the pub’s once thatched roof. Contact +44(0)1332 863808.
Hardwick Hall, a National Trust Property near Chesterfield on the B6039 off the A617 is an Elizabethan house in parkland with an orchard of crab apples, damsons, plums, medlars and mulberries. See the National Trust web-site
Hunloke Community Garden, off Church Street South, Chesterfield (there are brown tourist signs from the A61 Derby Road). A orchard of dwarf trees within a community garden created on an unused school playing field by local people. The garden was designed by Rother Community Action Partnership, a community group, and also includes a pond, a meadow area, a vegetable growing and composting area, poly tunnels and formal flower beds. The orchard stands in mown grass and is bounded on one side by a hedge. The community garden has become a haven for wildlife, birds, butterflies, hedgehogs, wildfowl and pond life amongst houses and roads. It has also become a successful nursery growing vegetables and plants for sale. It provides an outdoor classroom for Primary School activities and horticultural students of all ages. There is an annual flower and vegetable show in September each year. From the outset this has been a project by and for the community. This project is not just about creating a garden, but also regenerating the community and involving people of all ages and abilities. It is run by local people volunteering their time. The Garden is open 9am to 4pm weekdays during the winter and 9am to 6pm every day during the summer. Contact: Hunloke Community Garden, Off Church Street South, Chesterfield S40 2TF, +44(0)1246 234 739
Linton Parish Orchard (left), Colliery Lane, Linton. An orchard of 38 standard trees of apples, pears and damsons planted in 1997 on wasteground owned by Linton Parish Council. The project was helped by a Barclays Sitesavers grant, British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, the National Forest, apple expert Paul Hand, and local people. There is full public access and the fruit is collected by local residents. The orchard is in a beautiful spot near houses and next to the parish allotments, and gardeners have to walk through the orchard to reach their plots. An oak seat carved with fruit and vegetables has been placed there. Contact: Mr John Blythe, Foxley Lodge, 133 Main Street, Linton, nr Swadlincote, South Derbyshire, +44(0)1283 763208.
New Mills Community Orchard, Seddons Fields off Hague Bar Road and High Lea Road, New Mills. A two-acre orchard planted in 2006 high above New Mills Town in fields known as Seddons Fields, owned by the Town Council. Local school children helped to plant the trees and a Management Groups is responsible for its maintenance with assistance as required from Town Council park staff. The idea of using the fields for a Community Orchard was very well supported within the community and the new Allotments Society are keen to assist as it is seen as an allied project. The orchard’s high location on a south facing hillside means it can be seen from the town below. Records show that an orchard existed here in 1640. Apples, pears, cherry, damson and plum have been planted, surrounded by walls and fences. There is a wood to the west side. There is full access at all times, through High Lea Park. Contact: Mr Stephen Lewes, Town Hall, Spring Bank, New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, +44(0)1663 743434, admin[at]newmillstowncouncil.com or see www.newmillstowncouncil.com
Where to buy apples and orchard produce
Chatsworth Farm Shop, Chatsworth Estate, Pilsley DE45 1UF, +44(0)1246 583392 sell apples in season from Stoke Farm Orchards in Suffolk.
RV Roger Ltd, The Nurseries, Pickering, North Yorkshire YO18 7HG. Stock a wide range of varietie sof apples, pears, plums, damsons, cherries, medlars, mulberry, quince, nuts, can offer advice, grafting service, and can send out trees mail order. Tel. +44(0)1751 472226 or see their web-site.
TLG Orchards, Briarfields, Whitchurch Road, Aston, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 8DJ. Hundreds of varieties, and very knowledgeable. Tel. +44(0)1270 780828
Please tell us if you know of a good fruit tree nursery in Derbyshire : email info [at] commonground.org.uk
