Donkey Lane Community Orchard - How it began

Those of you in the village who walk up Keens Lane and into Donkey Lane towards the Ridgeway pass the Donkey Lane Community Orchard on the right just past the railway crossing.

Historically this was not an orchard. On the site there were six families living in three cottages built probably during the late 18th century and finally pulled down about 100 years ago. All of the heritage fruit trees found within the orchard were most likely planted by the cottagers.

About 25 years ago, efforts were made by the Chinnor Countryside group to clear the site but since then it had become completely overgrown and a focus for antisocial behaviour.

Greening Chinnor were approached by the Chiltern Conservation Board back in November 2017 to discuss involvement in ‘Rough around the Edges’; one of the interweaving projects part of the ‘Chalk, Cherries & Chairs’ Lottery-funded project. In discussion, the ‘orchard site’ came up which, at that time, was an impenetrable mess.

After much thinking, surveying and writing, rewriting and even more rewriting of proposals and costings, we were ready to reach out to the community at the end of 2018 and publish the ‘Five-Year Orchard Plan’. Local organisations could not have been more supportive: Chinnor Parish Council, Mid Shires Orchard Group (MSOG), Wild Oxfordshire, BBOWT, Chiltern Rangers, SODC and most of all our amazing team of volunteers. Special thanks must go to Mr Derek Nixey the landowner who has given the village a free fifteen-year tenancy. Read more ...