Planting Eynsham's Coronation Mini Orchards
On 14th February, as part of the Coronation Community Orchard Scheme funded by WODC, the Network planted two mini orchards in Eynsham to benefit the residents, one at the Eynsham Firestation and one at Marlboruough Place.
We were delighted to be approached by Eynsham Fire Station watch manager Laurence Jennings last year, with his ambitious ideas to improve the biodiversity of the area surrounding the station and hopes to extend this trial site to more local fire station sites. We have also built a Tawny Owl box for the Firestation and we are hoping that our firemen will help us put it up in their woodland.
In the meantime, we are running a six month training course at Long Mead (Mondays 10am to 1pm, from 27th April) to grow wildflowers for our mini orchards and those in our neighbouring communities who also received a Coronation Orchard Grant. If anyone would like to join the training course to help us to create meadows for these new orchards, please get in touch.(We ask for a minimum attendance of once a month).
Watch Manager Laurence Jennings gets stuck in planting apple trees
On a sunny day in January we planted 6 new apple trees at the Fire Station, including Eynsham Heritage varieties Eynsham Challenger, Eynsham Dumpling, Oxford Beauty, Red Army and Sergeant Peggy.
NRN members Simon Smith and Mike Chippendale with Firefighter Natalie Cutting at the Firestation Mini Orchard
NRN member Carl Rylett reports on the planting at Marlborough Place:
On a sunny February afternoon I had the pleasure of working with the Nature Recovery Network to plant fruit trees on the green at Marlborough Place. The project was part of a nation-wide celebration of the coronation of King Charles, with the aim of planting fruit trees to be enjoyed by the local community. This provided the grant to fund the project.
In Eynsham we have the fortune of being able to tap into an incredible wealth of expertise of residents and also a local tradition of apple tree growing, with several varieties originating here.
Several residents came by and offered their support, including giving us cups of tea to help keep us going. We planted five apple trees (dessert apples varieties Jennifer Wastie, Oxford Hoard, Oxford Conquest and Red Army, and dual purpose Old Fred) and two pear trees (a Conference and a Williams’ Bon Chretien).
We also noticed a small yew tree on the green which we were told came from Ely Cathedral! It got us thinking what other interesting stories of our village's trees are out there.