Wassail at the Orchard - This Saturday

Saturday 29th January 2022 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Donkey Lane Community Orchard, off Keens Lane, Chinnor, Oxfordshire, OX39 4PF

Wassail at the Orchard!

Greening Chinnor and the Mid Shires Orchard Group invite you and your family to a Winter Wassail for the Donkey Lane Community Orchard! The Anglo-Saxon ‘wes haile!’ or ‘wase hail!’ was a hearty wish for good health and fortune. We shout ‘Wassail!’ to toast our apple trees, that they may be healthy and fruitful for the coming year and bring us good harvest and bounty. We also make lots of noise to ward off bad luck and mischievous spirits, so they stay away and don’t steal the fruit!

Cross the railway crossing and enter the Donkey Lane Community Orchard via the ancient trackway… Appreciate the lovely vista of the historic 19th century apple trees in this rural Chilterns landscape. Enjoy the warm scent of apples as the hodgepodge of windfalls are crushed underfoot. Admire the decorated trees that are the King and Queen of the Orchard, hung with all their finery.

The event is lots of fun and we welcome audience participation. Make a din to scare off mischievous spirits, by banging drums, blowing horns, beating pots and pans and joining in the Wassail song accompanied by the Towersey Village Voices choir. Assembled children (of all ages!) will scatter a festive seed mix, for the wildlife to enjoy

After the main event: Congregate around the Refreshments Stall to enjoy more cider, mulled cider, mulled apple juice, apple juice and cake. Small donations are welcomed in return for refreshments, for the Donkey Lane Community Orchard.

Take a tour of the Donkey Lane Community Orchard

• Take a walk around the Donkey Lane Community Orchard with your hosts
• Visit the historic apple and plum trees and learn more about them
• Discover the site of the old well and the cottages
• Learn how you can help keep this orchard flourishing, join in working parties and enjoy orchard events

You’ve read about Wassails in the Parish Pump; this is your chance to come along and enjoy one for yourself. Bring along some musical instruments, pots, pans and wooden spoons… anything that will make a noise!

Weather and clothing

Check the weather forecast and dress up appropriately. Bring a brolly if needed! Wear wellington boots or stout, waterproof footwear that is suitable for walking around in an orchard environment, in winter weather.

Donkey Lane Community Orchard - The First 3 Months of the Project

 After 18 months of discussions and agreements from the landowner, Mr Nixey, the Parish Council and our funding partner, The Chiltern Conservation Board and with a line-up of very eager volunteers, we were finally ready to embark on the actual ‘hands-on’ restoration of Donkey Lane Community Orchard. 

As the Orchard was hugely overgrown with waist-deep, thick-stemmed brambles, thick ivy overgrowths, general brash and fallen tree trunks, the number of volunteers at the first few working parties had to be restricted. After a health & safety chat and distribution of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), each person was given some tools and a place at the centre of the small cleared area to start clearing; radiating outwards. The plan – to find the known 20 old apple trees and the Chinnor Plum and with a great sense of purpose and adventure, the work began! 

As well as the trees, and at least 30 years of accumulated rubbish, we knew there was an underground den and treehouse. When the ‘den’ area was cleared and inspected, it was found that some of the supporting timbers had been removed and the roof had collapsed. This would be something we would have to deal with and make safe. A structural survey was carried out on the treehouse and it was found that the floor was rotten and unsafe. Another potential hazard to sort out!

Whilst clearing brambles and ivy from the ground several things, apart from the trees, emerged; glass, this had to be and still is, the biggest find, from old windows, car windscreens, broken beer bottles to some very thick pieces of opaque glass – perhaps from old milk bottles. 

 

There were some ceramic finds of small broken pieces of green, blue and white pottery and two treasures; a 1950s bee ornament and a small metal cast replica of Concord. Could any of this give an indication to the lives of the early inhabitants of the orchard? Maybe; we’re still waiting to find treasure!  

 

 

 

The work in the Orchard in the first three months was phenomenal. We found the 21 fruit trees and more! Some of the trees were totally hidden under a heavy ‘blanket’ of ivy and some of the taller trees had so much ivy on the canopy, they were in danger of toppling over in high winds. Some of the trees had already fallen over and looked dead.

We had to take down the treehouse and infill the ‘den’ and in time, will make use of the wood and other materials to make wildlife habitats throughout the Orchard.

Those first few months were pivotal and the sense of achievement and pride by all was truly felt. The Orchard had gone from being extremely overgrown and almost impossible to get into with the fruit trees hidden and virtually no view of the surrounding area, to most of the fruit trees cleared of ivy and brambles as far up as possible. With the discovery of the fruit trees and, referring back to the 1877 map, it is possible that these could be the trees in the original photographs standing in the garden of the cottages over 150 years ago. Read more ...

2022 Wassail at the Orchard