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Collingham Community Orchard
STOP PRESS….STOP PRESS….STOP PRESS….STOP PRESS….STOP PRESS….STOP PRESS….
We would like to invite everybody in Collingham to participate in the official planting to take place on Sunday 20 November at 2.00pm at the orchard site (off Swinderby Road and Crew Road). Please bring yourself, a spade and as many family and friends as you can, as we have ten trees and 100’s of bulbs to plant that afternoon.
‘Community Orchards can offer:
Places for quiet contemplation and centres for local festivities; they act as carbon sinks, reservoirs for varieties of fruit, and refuges for all manner of wild life.
Ways of reinforcing local distinctiveness, as people band together to save vulnerable old apple, pear, cherry, damson and plum orchards and local varieties of fruit.
They should be accessible at reasonable times.
They may be owned or leased by a community group, voluntary organisation, parish council or other tier of local authority.
Local people can share the orchard harvest or profit from the sale of its produce, taking responsibility for any work done.’
(Community Orchards Handbook – Common Ground 2008)
September 2010
Collingham Parish Council, at a meeting held on the 13th May 2010, unanimously agreed to a proposal by 2020 Green Vision (Collingham’s environmental group) that the recently acquired piece of land between Swinderby Road and Crew Road should be managed as a Community Orchard on behalf of the village.
The next step is to put forward a management plan to the Parish Council, raise funds, plant and maintain this orchard with a mixture of fruit trees and bushes. As with all community orchards, access will be available at all times and indeed the character of this space will be enhanced by the trees and the wildlife they attract.
If you want to know more about Community Orchards, of which there are over 300 in England including one in Southwell, please visit the Common Ground website at http://www.commonground.org.uk.
We would very much wish to involve the local residents of Collingham in the planning and execution of this orchard and invite anybody interested to contact Derek Middlemiss on 892821 or email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
As soon as we have an outline management plan agreed with the Parish Council it is our intention to hold a public meeting to seek your comments, ideas and support.
Derek Middlemiss
Update January 2011
The New Year begins with plenty of exciting news concerning the Collingham Community Orchard.
Following the unanimous approval of the scheme by the Parish Council and their kind donation of a piece of land for the planting of fruit trees, we have gained the support of the local residents who live close to the orchard site. A public meeting held in November was met with a positive and encouraging response, a platform from which we can build a wider community project. This year will see the first trees planted, some this spring and more in the autumn.
Until relatively recently, orchards were a familiar sight across the country, and not just in rural locations. Fruit was grown for a local market, but post war changes in shopping habits and the decline of a mixed agricultural economy, meant that they fell victim to replacement by other crops or development, their shadow remaining in the naming of housing developments like Damson Way or Bramley Close. With this loss went the mature trees fragrant with spring blossom, numerous local varieties of fruit which failed to meet the supermarket criteria for uniformity or transportability and a rich and varied flora and fauna which thrived on the mix of nature and nurture unique to orchard management. Community orchards across the country are now working to reverse this decline.
If you would like further information or like to get involved contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 01636 892596.