Orchard History

The Clara Vale Community Orchard was created in 2000 as a Millenium Project. The site, which previously was the grounds of Stanners House until it fell into dis-repair, is approximately 0.9 acres, and was converted into a productive and well-loved community space through multiple community led efforts to clear the grounds and create an orchard. Currently there are approximately 100 fruit trees. We describe the orchard as “The wild and fruity space for people and nature” to reflect our community and conservation values.

Objective

We aimed to make gradual changes and implement small interventions to benefit both the local community and the ecological health of the area.

Our main objectives for the Clara Vale Community Orchard during the period of 2023-2024 were to:

1. Continue the maintenance of the orchard in a lightly managed working condition while preserving its natural and wild essence.
2. Implement the new member management scheme and member website.
3. Implement the new bio-diversity plan.

Orchard management

Through a combination of pruning days with multiple volunteers, and individual volunteers taking on specific tasks (such as maintaining the willow arch or keeping the paths clear), we have maintained the productivity and aesthetics of the orchard whilst keeping it a safe and open community space. A previously disused water trough was dug out and restored to a working condition allowing members to water their trees during the increasingly hot summers.

Harvest last year was somewhat mixed with some trees producing well, but others that had previously been productive produced less fruit.

Risks assessments for volunteers days, and general orchard risks, have been produced or updated.

Apple Day

This popular annual community event was a big success in both reporting years, with good attendance in the Orchard and Village Hall, income in line with previous years, and lots of laughs and sugary apple fritters washed down with delicious fresh apple juice. A membership station in the Hall gave support to member enquiries about the new membership website.

New management scheme

We successfully moved from the original management scheme (one renter per tree with an annual tree rent) to a new more open community management scheme. Under the new scheme, any resident of Clara Vale or Stannerford Road can join the scheme at any time, and they are then welcome to pick a fair share of fruit from any tree through the harvest season.

Initial community feedback has been positive, although membership has perhaps was lower than hoped in the first year.

In 2024 we introduced a new membership website. The focus for this site, was ease of use, transparency on member benefits and to provide card payments (based on feedback from many members who no longer use cash) whilst preserving a cash option for those who don’t use the internet.

The website received many positive comments from the community and helped us return the membership numbers to close to the older levels, but still some work to be done to increase membership.

New bio-diversity plan

Following the ideas generated in the management scheme consultation survey, a bio-diversity plan was produced to increase the ecological health of the orchard and surrounding areas.

The big project was to add a nature pond. This was no small undertaking and I would like to thank our donors who paid for any new materials required (e.g. the pond liner), the core team of volunteers who dug a BIG hole and made it into something beautiful, and all the other volunteers who dropped in to help when they could.

Within a matter of weeks wildlife had started colonising the pond and it has generated a lot of positive community conversation. A big early success was repeated spotting’s of Great Crested Newts, presumably migrated from a nearby chain of ponds along the railway which have other recorded populations.

We have also developed the back edge of the orchard into a path of connectivity for wildlife which includes a new native tree hedge (courtesy of QTS Network Rail Contractors) and a butterfly wildflower bar (which was a joint project with Nature Club).