Nottinghamshire orchard groups

To find community orchards local to you, see our community orchard map

• St Anns Allotments and STAA Ltd Community Orchard – The St Anns Allotments, Nottingham, is theoldest and largest area of Victorian detached town gardens in the world and has recently been listed with a Grade 2* by English Heritage. The site covers 75 acres and sits in the heart of the one of the most deprived inner-city communities in the country. STAA runs a Community Orchard on a collection of plots on the St Ann’s Allotments. It is a lively hub of educational and community life centered on local children and families. The St Anns Allotments have a rich and fascinating fruit tree heritage. It is estimated that there are 2,000 fruit trees in gardens around the site representing 120 varieties of apple and 50 varieties of pear.

Where to buy trees in Nottinghamshire

• Marc Richmond – runs a small nursery specialising in heritage apple trees and those of the East Midlands, all grown to organic standards.

• St Anns Allotments and STAA Ltd have trees available propagated from those on their Nottingham site including local varieties of Bramley and Pickering’s Seedling.

• Cool Temperature Nursery – offer apple, pear, plum and quince trees from the wholesaler Frank P Matthews. Developing The Own-Root Fruit Tree Project to offer fruit trees on own rootstock in the future. ‘Cool Temperate’, 45, Stamford Street, Awsworth, Nottingham, NG16 2QL

Orchard services and produce in Nottinghamshire

• Torkard Cider – artisan cider makers using own apples grown in Hucknall and apples from other Nottinghamshire orchards. Available locally.

• The Fruitful Branch - A specialist fruit tree pruner with 25 years experience. Renovation pruning a speciality, but all types taken on - formative, maintenance, planting and training. Apples, pears, plums, figs, medlars etc.

Other links

• The Bramley Festival – Every October Southwell holds the Bramley Festival to celebrate the Bramley. Part of the original tree, now over 200 years old, still survives and fruits in Southwell. It should rightfully be called Brailsford’s Seedling as it was planted by a young Mary Anne Brailsford who decided to plant a pip in a pot from apples her mother was preparing in the kitchen, eventually planting it out in the garden. The apple bears the name of the next owner of the cottage, butcher Matthew Bramley, in whose time the apples achieved the interest of local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather. The Bramley now makes up 97% of all the culinary apples grown commercially in the U.K.