Orchards are not only historically significant sites but also culturally and environmentally valuable habitats. They used to be widely spread in the UK until the 1950s when fruit became commercially available. The loss of these wildlife hotspots has contributed to the large decline in pollinators that would have benefitted from the fruit and flowers. A revival of local orchards can help to improve biodiversity decline and reconnect communities around this historic practice.
The orchard growing today at Lower Sharpham Barton Farm is a restoration of a historic orchard that once grew in the late 1800s. This traditional orchard was funded to be re-established in 2015 as part of a higher-level stewardship ecological restoration project at the farm. A trainee helped to research suitable species and the project was underway. Using a historic map from the 1880s for reference and recommendations from natural England, this lost hectare of blossoming fruit trees was born again. Since then, in 2019 another budding trainee at Ambios began a project to record and identify the trees. This has provided great insight to use today with information regarding the trees locations, species name and species use.
After an initial busy few years of establishment, the orchard is now in need of a new vision and focused care. Through our Sharpham Wild About Trees Project – funded by the Plymouth & South Devon Community Forest, our tree planting ranger and a weekly volunteer group have planted 16 trees (cherry, plum. apple and pear) to either replace failed trees or fill in new locations in the orchard. Along with this, new chestnut post and rail guards have gone up to protect the newly planted trees, a big thank you to all their hard work!
This mosaic habitat is often host to various fruit tree species, unimproved grassland, bordering hedgerows and dead wood. Our small herd of zwartbles sheep help to maintain the land by keeping the grass down and eating fallen fruit. We endeavour to lift the orchard to be a thriving community based feature at the farm, creating a place for people to come together to prune, pick and enjoy all this wildlife haven has to offer. We aim to create an interpretation board for any visitors at the farm to learn about the significance of orchards and what we have growing as well as hosting a few apple pressing events.
We are thrilled to share our new vision for the orchard with you this World Environment Day. This years theme ‘Our Land. Our Future’ focuses on the urgent need for land restoration and subsequent nature recovery to build a sustainable future. With the support of Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest, we are proud to put land restoration into action at Sharpham.
✍Izzy Bloomfield – Ambios Tree Planting and Logistics Officer
