Join us on Friday 31 January, along with The Orchard Project, Cllr Ellie Reeves and local schools to plant our new Coronation Orchard!
Please save the date, plan your leave now and we’ll add details as we get them.
Or to keep in touch and take part in the conversation, join our Biodiversity WhatsApp group via the Get involved page.
Planting day flyer
Download the flyer as a PDF or copy the JPEG below and share it with your local networks and friends!
Briefing note
Download our briefing note, which includes details about tree varieties, as well as practicalities on the day .
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A new orchard for Blythe Hill Fields
Briefing note (2.0)
Background
The new Coronation Orchard on Blythe Hill Fields is being planted and maintained by volunteers from the Friends of Blythe Hill Fields, with training and support from The Orchard Project and funding from the King’s Coronation Fund. The project has the backing and support of London Borough of Lewisham, who owns the park, and Glendale Services, the parks contractor, who manages and maintains the site.
The orchard will provide free and fresh fruit for the community to enjoy for many years to come, as well as ongoing opportunities for people to explore the link between nature and our food, with ongoing volunteering and engagement activities planned for the site. Orchards are brilliant for wildlife – so much so that they are listed priority habitats under the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan. Fruit trees provide abundant flowers, food and shelter for a wide range of species, and each one serves as a mini-ecosystem.
The orchard will be planted by willing volunteers and local school groups on Friday 31 January 2025. The day starts at 10am with space for schools groups and opens up to casual volunteers from the community from12 noon. Everyone is welcome to get involved and we look forward to seeing you there!
Why orchards?
Orchards aren’t just an important source of food and an amazing space to come together and learn – they also represent a vital source of habitat, which has been in significant decline over the last century. Orchards provide food and homes for birds, pollinators, insects, fungi and all kinds of wildlife. Fruit trees are particularly good for habitat because they are ‘early sensescent’ – in other words, they develop the characteristics of older trees much quicker, developing features such as rot holes and hollow trunks, which become important homes for birds and bugs.
In recent times, we have rediscovered the value of a sustainable ‘forest garden’ approach that enriches orchards with diverse perennial fruit and vegetable varieties to become fully-fledged mini ecosystems, with tiered perennial food plants, flowers and nitrogen fixers growing underneath and between the trees. This approach gives an enormous boost to biodiversity, improving the health of the habitat, as well as providing healthy activities, learning opportunities and lots of lovely food for the community to enjoy.
Design
The Friends worked with Lewisham to agree a site for the orchard and then the layout was designed by a group of volunteers, who collaborated at a dedicated design day convened by The Orchard Project. Eight volunteers attended and additional training day, where they learned about orchard care and management. This ensures a pool of expertise within the community that will give the orchard the best chance of ongoing success.
The layout of the site was carefully designed to maximise available sunlight (which means lots of sugar!) with careful spacing and smaller trees to the South and larger shading trees to the North. The location, which is next to the playground on a slightly south facing slope, has neutral and reasonably well-drained soil, which should give the trees a good chance of success.
The orchard is located next to the playground, making it easily accessible by families, and our design includes several picnic tables to encourage people to spend time among the trees. One new table will be provided as part of Glendale’s repair and replacement programme and the Friends will be fundraising for additional benches in future. (If you’re interested in donating a picnic table, please get in touch!)
Our fruit varieties were chosen to reflect the diversity of our community, with a mix of local heritage varieties and trees from around the world. We gave priority to productive, easy to grow and disease resistant varieties with long life-spans, which should mean lots of good, wholesome fruit for our community for years to come.
Tree list
Apple (dessert) – Ashmeads Kernel
Ashmead's Kernel is an old traditional English russet, classed as one of the best late dessert apples. The superlatives used to describe its rare flavour have been consistent for three centuries. Fruit is pale green with strong, sweet-sharp, intense, pear drop flavour and white flesh. It's an excellent keeper, until March in ideal conditions, producing fine juice that can be used for cider. Beautiful large white flowers in the spring, much better grown as a garden variety.
Apple (dessert) – Worcester Pearmain
Worcester Pearmain is the main English commercial apple. A reliable crop of delicious flushed blood red fruit. Firm, juicy flesh is very sweet with strong strawberry flavour. At its best when ripened on the tree and just before it falls off. Remains a widely popular garden apple.
Apple (dessert and cooking) – Bardsey
Apple Bardsey is the ‘sainted’ apple which was found on Bardsey Island, off the west coast of Wales. This pink over cream skinned crisp apple has an extraordinary lemon scent and has a fine refreshing flavour. Also pleasant for eating fresh, can be juiced and cooks well to a sweet puree. A very attractive garden apple variety that looks especially stunning in the spring with it's light pink blossom and a good variety to plant in challenging areas across the UK as it's very hardy.
Apple (cider) – Dabinett
Dabinett is the most reliable cider variety. Skin is yellow-greenish flushed pinkish-red, smooth and waxy. Has a bittersweet juice that produces a high-quality, medium-dry cider on it's own. Flesh is greenish-white, sweet and astringent. A beautiful cluster of pinkish-white blossom in the spring that occasionally produces a secondary flower at any time during the year.
Cherry (white dessert) – Bigarreau Napoleon
Napoleon Bigarreau is one of the greats, an old fashioned white variety. Produces a heavy crop of good quality, large, long, heart-shaped fruit. An excellent white cherry with a shiny marble red finish, pale golden white flesh and sweet-sharp, tangy taste.
Fig – Brown Turkey
The classic British fig, Brown Turkey produces masses of large, brown skinned fruits that are pear-shaped. A sugary, rich, red flesh; very tasty! Large, glossy palmate leaves. Good compact habit, very hardy and reliable and easy to grow.
Mulberry – Chelsea
Chelsea (also know as King James I) is a traditional English variety, by far the most popular mulberry. Produces unusually large and succulent fruit cropping early in life. Dark red almost black fruits and an intensely rich flavour. Can be eaten fresh from the tree or add sugar, microwave, sieve and pour over ice cream! Very hardy tree. Harvesting is best done each day.
Pear (perry) – Hendre Huffcap
Hendre Huffcap is a very rare, large tree with upright branches. Crops are generally large and regular, while fruit is elliptical and irregular, yellowish-green with a russet around the stem end. A clean grower suffering little disease. Medium acid, low tannin for a pleasant, good vintage quality perry.
Pear – Winter Nellis
Winter Nelis is a fine, late pear variety that produces small but good fruits of pale green turning to yellowish-green which are almost covered in russet. The flesh is greenish-white, juicy and sweet with the most delicious flavour. The fruits last well into the New Year and is rated as one of the richest flavoured pears. Pretty white flowers appear in late spring and the blossom has good frost resistance. One of the best northern varieties.
Plum (dessert) – Blue Tit
Blue Tit is an old Laxtons variety of excellent quality. Produces regular crops of blue-black fruits with blue-black bloom. Flesh is yellow with pleasant sweet-sharp flavour. Best for eating fresh from the tree. The tree itself is compact in habit so perfect for the smaller space in the garden. Pretty white clusters of blossom appear in the spring.
Plumcot - Flavor King
Flavor King is an newly introduced inter-species plum-apricot hybrid that combines the best qualities of both species into one crop. Fruits are oval-shaped, red-purple in colour with a smooth skin. The flesh is dark blood red with a spicy flavour, juicy and delicious plum-like tasting. They make the perfect dessert fruit for eating freshly picked from the tree. Early in the spring, it displays attractive white flowers that should be protected from the frosts.
Quince – Serbian Gold
Serbian Gold is a highly productive variety from Serbia, locally known as ‘Leschovach’. The fruits are greenish-yellow and tend to be 'apple shaped'. Flesh is rich and aromatic, turns rose pink once it's been cooked. Used for all culinary purposes including Quince Liqueur, Quince Cheese or Quince Marmalade. Great ornamental value producing attractive pinkish-white blossom in the Spring followed by silver coloured, unique leaves. A very healthy tree with good resistance to leaf blight, also worthy of planting in larger numbers. Can be planted in most parts of the UK.
Nitrogen fixer – Eleagnus quicksilver
A remarkable nitrogen-fixer, which will provide natural fertiliser for our fruit for years to come, Eleagnus is a large quick growing deciduous shrub with attractive silver coloured leaves, the young shoots have an almost metallic sheen to them. Produces clusters of small, sweetly scented silvery white flowers from May to July. This is an adaptable shrub which does well in coastal districts and can cope with drier soils. Makes a good canvas for primary colours.
Planting day - 31 January 2025
Here’s the plan for the day.
10am: Schools arrive
10.15: Lewis McNeill from The Orchard Project will be leading the briefing and doing a planting demo. (Committed volunteers from the Friends will be on hand to lend support.)
10.40: Schools plant one or two trees per school on prearranged spots. These will be marked out in advance.
Each school will carry out the following tasks for each tree they are planting - max of two trees/school
1. Dig a pit - this is not deep, 3/4 spade depth.
2. Put the trees in
3. Back filling
4. Bash tree stakes in (adults only)
5. Put wire around
6. Mulching with cardboard and woodchip, if there’s time.
11.15-11.30ish: Schools finish
12 noon: Open to casual community volunteers. We will be planting the remaining trees, installing tree stakes and cages and laying cardboard and bark mulch around each tree.
Practicalities
Wear warm, waterproof coats and boots as the Hill will be muddy and cold. Bring gloves – ideally gardening gloves, if you have them. Tools, including small spades and trowels will be provided, but feel free to bring your own, too.
The future
Take part in a traditional Wassail!
The Friends will host a traditional Wassailing Event to celebrate the new orchard on Saturday 8 February at 4pm. Bring pots and pans to make a noise – and a mug if you want to enjoy some apple juice or cider. More details here: https://www.blythehillfields.org.uk/events/2025/2/8/wassail
We need your help! Please support us with watering and tree care
Joining one of our regular tree care sessions is a great way to spend a few hours outdoors, getting some sunshine and exercise, meeting like-minded local people and learning new skills. Fruit trees need even more care than regular trees. This includes consistent watering, particularly in the Summer, as well as weeding and mulching in the Autumn. Fruit trees need careful pruning, too, to help them stay productive and healthy. So there’s lots to learn!
The Friends will be running regular tree care and watering sessions throughout the year. We never have too many volunteers, so please get involved. To stay up to date and keep track of what’s going on, please join the Friends Coronation Orchard WhatsApp group here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BLsbn6EPvQm8Alo28c3seg
Towards a Forest Garden
As part of our ongoing engagement with the orchard, the Friends will be running regular gardening events to gradually transform the orchard into a fully fledged forest garden. This will involve underplanting the trees with edible perennials, including herbs, such as rosemary, sage and thyme, berries, like raspberries and currants and other amazing perennial food plants, including rhubarb, asparagus and artichokes. All produce will be organic and available for free to the whole community, a living demonstration of nature’s abundance.
Donations and funding
We’re looking for funding to:
Add new picnic benches to the space
Lay piping and add a new, secure, water point for easier watering
Buy tools, secure storage and ongoing care
Buy herbs, shrubs and perennials, like rhubarb, to enrich the forest garden.
If you’re interested supporting the orchard financially, please email chair@bltyhehillfields.org.uk or speak to one of our volunteers.
About Friends of Blythe Hill Fields
The Friends is a group of volunteers who come together through our love for the community and for nature. We work to strengthen our local community and create sustainable park improvements so everyone can enjoy this wonderful open space.
We have an activity Biodiversity Group that works to nurture wildlife in the park and encourages the community to engage more with nature. Each summer we run the Blythe Hill Fields Festival, a showcase of diverse local businesses and talent and a much loved highlight of the local calendar.
About The Orchard Project
The Orchard Project is the only national charity dedicated solely to creating, maintaining and celebrating community orchards.
We aim to make a serious contribution to a better food system, based on people working together where they live to produce and harvest their own fruit.
We work closely with community groups in hubs around England, Scotland and Wales helping to design and create new orchards that will last for decades to come, as well as restoring old, neglected heritage orchards. We rebuild orcharding skills and knowledge, hold fantastic orchard celebration events, and help groups make the most of their harvests.
Our aim is that everyone in cities across the UK is within walking distance of a productive, well-cared-for, community-run orchard. We believe that orchards have the potential to build stronger communities by providing cherished, nature-rich community food spaces and empowering people to make positive change where they live.