Nature Features

Bridport has a new community orchard.

A field behind St Mary's Church on South Street in Bridport that was once earmarked for development has been given special protected status by West Dorset District Council.

It's now been designated a 'Green Open Space', with part of the land dedicated to 15 new allotments, and the rest for the apples trees.

Once mature, anyone will be able to come along and pick themselves an apple or sit in the orchard to admire the trees.

"It belongs to everyone"

The project has had the backing of Symondsbury-based orchard expert Kim Squirrell.

She says: "A lot of people have worked very hard to keep the land as green open space. One of the suggestions was to create an orchard here, so I did a feasibility study.

Planting the first trees

"It's the ideal place because people walk through here everyday - no one has to travel far to get to it. We want to bring in people on a daily basis, and it's a good opportunity for people to see food growing first hand. It belongs to everyone."

Wassailing

To mark the planting of the orchard a special wassailing ceremony took place, during which the trees were blessed through song.

The word 'wassail' comes from Anglo Saxon 'waes hael' and is a greeting meaning 'good health'.

The ceremony traditionally takes place around Twelfth Night to produce a good crop and ward off bad spirits so the timing of the event in January 2009 was particularly appropriate. 

Volunteers

Now the saplings are in the ground they will need to be managed so the organisers are developing groups of volunteers to help maintain the orchard. They're also going to offer training so people can look after the trees as they grow.

Kim admits it'll be a few years before there's any fruit to pick. "In about five years' time we will be able to start cropping some apples. One of our ideas is that they're sold through veg boxes, or go out to the many various groups we're involved with."

The orchard's land is owned by West Dorset District Council but has been leased to the town council on a 30 year agreement, which in turn is supporting the orchard.