Studio Orchard Project
A community orchard for the benefit of everyone
Our site consists of over 14 acres in the heart of the Ribble Valley where 100 heritage apple trees were planted in March 2020 - these were donated by The Orchard Project in Manchester. Ten more fruit trees (apple, pear, plum and cherry) were planted in February 2021 with Bolton-by-Bowland CofE Primary School. These were donated by The Tree Council and the Daily Mail. Six cherry trees have since been added by Friends of Bowland and 4 Damson trees for the Coronation and the wild wild wild weekender
Over the last 100 years Britain has seen a massive loss of orchards, particularly smaller scale traditional orchards and orchards at a local community level. There is less access to space for community orchards despite evidence of the benefits to mental and physical health from access to such spaces. We are hoping to create a community of volunteers to help plant and maintain the orchard and involve Bolton-by-Bowland Primary School where they are welcome to use it as open classroom and they are often invited to learn about the orchard. When the orchard is producing enough fruit we plan to use this in our bakery products reducing the UK’s reliance on fruit grown elsewhere. As ninety-five percent of UK fruit comes from overseas, we aim to decrease food miles and increase local farming skills. Children will be able to follow the entire process of growing fruit to manufacturing products like apple pie, apple crumble, apple puree, apple sauce, apple juice, etc. We will increase their awareness and understanding of how food grows and how it is produced which in turn increases their capacity to understand how to eat healthily. Any food produced will be supplied to local companies and Booths supermarkets who are very supportive of local producers.
our directors Lucy and Alison with there son Ralph 2024
April 2024
The Friends of Bowland have been to the orchard to feed the trees, with many about to blossom! Soon we will have apples, plums, pears and cherries! At the end of April 5 morello cherry, 5 Victoria plum, and 1 walnut tree were planted!
February 2024
Wet day at the field! Despite a very muddy orchard, the pruning has now been completed, with plenty of sheep stopping by to graze!
October 2023
5 members of the Friends of Bowland group headed out to the orchard and pruned almost half of the trees in the field. A few apples had fallen from them too!
May 1st 2023
For the coronation of the King and the wild wild wild weekender we have added 4 Damson trees to the orchard
February 9th and 23rd 2023
Tree pruning and maintenance administered by Friends of Bowland
September 2022
Its been a difficult dry year for the young trees in the orchard. We were very pleased to see some apples, for some of them it was their first fruit. The biodiversity visibly increases year on year
July 1st 2022
The Orchard is in its 3rd year now. There are 3 bees in this one shot and 20 different species of wildflowers in the meadow. We are increasing the biodiversity every year.
May 2022
General tree maintenance administered by Friends of Bowland. Blossoms and Mayflowers from the Orchard
23rd March 2022
Friends of Bowland popped up for a bit of maintenance and to try some young plants in the hedgerow. If they do not get eaten by the deer we will plant more……they did get eaten!
Friday 11th March 2022
Friends of Bowland planted 6 more cherry trees, Howgate Wonder apples and Opal and Czar plum trees. Buttercups are starting to come through and hopefully more wildflowers will emerge this year due to plug planting efforts last year.
Tuesday 16th November 2021
Harriet, Jennie and Lucy planted about 250 wildflower plugs and seeded around 2 kilo of additional wildflower seed.
Thursday 4th November 2021
Friends of Bowland were back in the orchard today and this time with some better weather! Plugs were checked on and are doing well. More seeds donated from the Millennium Trust from Coronation Meadows were sowed plus a few other varieties that are indigenous to Lancashire. More trees tended to and only a few more to go! Next tasks include feeding the trees in the spring and planting more fruit trees in the ten to fifteen empty posts we have.
Wednesday 27th October 2021
Martin popped over on his own today as it was the ideal weather to plant the wildflower plugs that had been kindly donated by Carol from the Millennium Trust https://www.ydmt.org
Wednesday 13th October 2021
Friends of Bowland were lucky with the weather this time! They tended to more of the trees; pruning, weeding, mulching and tying them where necessary. Hopefully the team will be back at the end of the month to plant some seeds once the wildflower area has been harrowed.
The Friends of Bowland are a volunteer group that do practical conservation tasks once or twice a month throughout the year in and around Bowland. They have worked for several years in Gisburn Forest and for the Woodland Trust in Grindleton and are just about to start working in Longridge Fell. In ’normal’ times they also have regular walks and talks. They support the aims of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and sometimes work with them but are an independent group. Anyone interested in coming along or suggesting tasks should contact the secretary, Martin Charlesworth on 07922 130855 or friendsofbowland@gmail.com
Thursday 30th September 2021
Martin Charlesworth and the team from Friends of Bowland braved the rain this time and tended to the trees. They also found our first apples in the section the children from Bolton by Bowland planted. These trees are about a year older than the majority so hopefully next year we will have even more apples!
Thursday 24th June 2021
Martin Charlesworth and the team from Friends of Bowland were finishing off labelling the trees up and identifying tree gaps and missing labels. It is important to have your orchard labelled so you know which varieties are growing, where they are growing and to help identify any risks to the orchard. Thank you to all involved!
Thursday 20th May 2021
Martin Charlesworth and the team from Friends of Bowland were out in the pouring rain! They were reducing cage heights, labelling up some of the fruit trees and measuring the hedgerow gaps in preparation for a grant application to ‘close the gap’. We are very grateful for the work they put in and look forwarding to welcoming them again in a few weeks time!
Wednesday 10th February 2021
Bolton by Bowland C of E Primary School came up in the freezing temperatures (-6C!) to help plant ten fruit trees. They planted 2 x James Grieves Apple Trees, 2 x Green Sleeves Apple Trees, 2 x Conference Pear Trees, 2 x Morello Cherry Trees and 2 x Victoria Plum Trees. Juniors and infants came up in two separate groups. They dug the holes themselves add mycorrhizal fungi to the roots, put the trees in, nailed the ties to the posts, nailed the identification cards to the posts, mulched the trees, put the cages on and even managed to drill the cages in place!
It was lovely sunny day and the children and teachers really enjoyed getting out of the classroom. Its nice for them to have some outdoor fun during Covid. Children remained in their bubbles and only one helper from Studio Bakery attended who remained socially distanced at all times. No pictures of the children were taken by Studio Bakery for their protection.
The day before - with everything out ready for the children.
All complete!
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th October 2020 - Wildflower Seed Planting
With the help of Malcolm (a local farmer) we ploughed and harrowed 2 acres. With just a few volunteers (we wish we had asked for more help!) we managed to plant all the seeds that we received from the Coronation Meadows at Slaidburn (Bell Sykes Farm). We are grateful to the advice and donation of seeds we received from the Millennium Trust. Sand was used to mix in with the seed, when we run out of that we used saw dust and we ran out of that we used flour. Seeds planted include meadow foxtail, sweet vernal grass, great burnet, meadowsweet, meadow cranes-bill, melancholy thistle, yellow rattle, eyebrights, pignut, buttercups and lady’s mantle. Let’s hope they grow, fingers crossed…
Meadow flowers were planted for diversity and to enhance the natural beauty of the area. The twentieth century has seen a sharp decrease in the variety of wildflowers in the UK. Plant diversity attracts insects, butterflies, bees, spiders, millipedes, birds, mammals and many more. The field we are using has public access so everyone will be able to enjoy the changing palate of colour and beauty of this project and will be able to help themselves to fruit and flowers for their own use.
Tree Planting day Saturday 7th March
This was the first volunteer day when over 100 Heritage apple trees were planted which were donated by the Orchard Project - Dan from the project was on hand all day for advice. Varieties include Ashmead Kernel, Ladies Finger of Lancaster, Lord Derby, Lobo, Pixie, Tydeman Early Worcester, Monarch, Cox Orange Pippin, Withington Welter, Minshull Crab, Burr Knot, Lemon Pippin, Paxton Fortune, red Sleeves, James Grieves, Sterling Castle and Egremont Russet. Tree number 99 completely by chance is a Captain Tom!
If you would like to get involved with any of our projects please contact us via the methods on the Contact Us or through social media. If you would to learn more about meadows or create your own there is lots of information on the following Forest of Bowland links:
