Gloucestershire Orchard Group

Conserves, promotes and celebrates traditional orchards in Gloucestershire

Some examples

The Mother Tree Orchard

The Mother Tree Orchard has been planted and developed by Gloucestershire County Council with support from Bulmers Cider Company in Hereford, Thornhayes Nursery in Devon, Charles Martell (a Gloucestershire farmer and the original collector of the varieties) and Common Ground. It is located on a county farm near Cheltenham. The long term benefits will be for local communities. Local people will have access to the varieties to help restore their orchards or simply plant individual trees. At a later stage, a new Orchard Centre for Rural Interpretation to act as a focal point for education, historical information, demonstration and training is also planned. Meanwhile as the Mother Tree Orchard establishes, it will safeguard the future of local distinct orchard trees within this county.

• Listing of trees in the Mother Tree Orchard

The Museum Orchard, Ebworth

January 2000 saw the first planting of the Museum Orchard. The objective is to establish all the Gloucestershire varieties as M25 standards in locations where they will form traditional orchards. To begin this project, the County Council in partnership with The National Trust, have agreed to set up a project base at The Old Ebworth Centre, near Birdlip. The Centre has the remnants of an old walled orchard, which is the focus for the new planting. Forty six standard trees have been planted as stem builders with view to grafting Gloucestershire varieties as top grafts. Meanwhile, other local varieties will be grafted and grown on by Bulmers and other nurseries to be replanted at other sites on county holdings to create up to 15 acres of new orchard to accommodate the county collection. Ebworth will also act as a future orchard interpretation centre with scope for further research and education of the value of the genetic bank that is being established here. This vision for the return of the county's wealth of distinct fruit trees starts in earnest in this new millennium, with the support of the National Trust, Murray Sharpe at Ebworth, the County Council, Richard Fawcett and Alan Watson, Bulmers Cider, John Worle and the research by Charles Martell.

NCCPG Gloucestershire Apple Collection

A project to save the indigenous apple varieties of Gloucestershire was started in the early 1990s. A county wide field survey was initiated, traditional apple growers were interviewed and graftwood was taken from their old varieties and propagated. Many of the varieties discovered were new to science, a survey of Gloucestershire apple varieties having never previously been undertaken, others were old traditional varieties. The Gloucestrshire Apple Collection orchards are located at Charles Martell's Laurel Farm, Dymock and are monitored and approved by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG). Planting of the collection started in 1992 and currently contains nearly 100 varieties. As in the past all trees are grown as standards, they are widely spaced and cattle graze under them. Graftwood from the individual varieties in the collection has been donated to the Gloucestershire County Council for establishment as a Mother Tree Collection to enable authenticated Gloucestershire apple varieties to be re-distributed for planting round the county.

Ebley Linear Community Orchard

National Apple Day on 21st October 1994 saw the start of the planting of the Ebley Linear Community Orchard near Stroud. This is a first nationally, to create an orchard alongside an ex-railway line, now a cycletrack. Seventy standard trees along a half mile of the track have been planted. This will make a powerful landscape feature in the future. Each traditional and some rare varieties are interpreted by individual information boards giving such details as date of origin and uses of the apple per variety. Gloucester Underleaf, Ashmead's Kernel and Gillyflower of Gloucester, are just some of the varieties planted that will help renew people's memories and taste buds to some of Gloucestershire's past produce. The Community Orchard is now well established and is well worth a visit. It can be found on the left hand side of the Ebley bypass A419 from Stonehouse to Stroud. A car park is provided at the Kings Stanley turning.

Green Farm Community Orchard

This is Gloucester's first community orchard. It is a lovely orchard site, with huge old fruit trees set in flowery grassland, now surrounded by the new housing and commercial developments of Quedgeley. Restoration, including replanting, is in progress. Free access at all times. Green Farm Community Orchard, Sims Lane, Quedgeley. Click here for a map.

The National Collection of Perry Pears

The Three Counties Showground at Malvern houses the NCCPG collection of perry pears some 126 trees of 59 varieties. The aim is to have three trees of every variety still known, and it is believed that there are more to be rediscovered. These trees were planted between 1991 and 1998 and in perry pear terms are still very young. Their life expectancy may be 300 years or more. For further information contact The Chief Executive, Three Counties Agricultural Society, The Showground, Malvern WR13 6NW on 01684 584900.

• Listing of trees in the National Collection of Perry Pears, with short descriptions and conservation status.