Gloucestershire Gardens and Landscape Trust Project on the County’s Orchards

As members who attended Paul Rabbitt’s talk on municipal parks know, GGLT with help from the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust, is preparing a plan for volunteers to help with establishing up-to-date information on the county’s orchards, both as existing at the present time, and where possible with some historic background.

Objective

The main aims of the project are:

  • to research and reveal the history of orchards in Gloucestershire by investigating the archival record, in order to build a picture of the importance of orchards generally, and within the landscape and culture of the county;
  • to visit one or more orchards to assess their current standing (by completing the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) standard survey form) to help keep the orchard database up-to-date and to assess the potential for orchards to be improved;
  • to communicate the findings of the project to members/supporters of GGLT and GOT to spread knowledge of the county’s orchards within the wider community;
  • to develop research and online mapping skills with project participants to enable further studies to be pursued in the future, if of interest to participants.

Method

The project will achieve its objectives by:

  • inviting participants to a ‘field day’ at GOT’s orchard at Longney to give participants the knowledge and confidence to complete the standard PTES orchard survey – this session will be led by David Lindgren, Chair of Trustees of GOT;
  • inviting participants to a ‘research morning’ at Gloucestershire’s County Archive to give participants an understanding of the material that is accessible and how to access that material – this session with be led by Dr. Anthea Jones of GGLT;
  • Inviting participants to an online training session on how to access the PTES database and maps of Gloucestershire’s orchards – this session will be led by Steve Oram of PTES.

Participants will be asked to select an orchard or orchards to study, either current or historical. This could be an orchard known to them, close to their home or within a particular parish of particular interest to the project group – it is for participants as individuals or as a group to decide. Project participants will then research and visit their orchard(s) at a time of their choosing, to build a picture of that orchard and to conduct an assessment of its current state (if the orchards still exist).

Timing and Results

  • Longney field day on Wednesday 19th June, 2024
  • Archive research morning at Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester on Tuesday 16th July, 2024
  • Reports of findings and results from July to November 15th, 2024
  • Summary of findings and results to date by GGLT and GOT from December 15th, 2024 in Newsletters or other relevant publication(s)

If you’d like to go…

To attend the Longney field day, please email David Lindgren [email protected] to confirm their attendance, so David can send out directions and our site Risk Assessment.

To attend the morning at the archive, please contact Anthea Jones via [email protected] so directions and information can be sent out.