Donkey Lane Community Orchard News

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17 April 2121

Great news, we're back at the Orchard. 

Working parties at the Orchard restarted on Saturday albeit with restricted numbers and with Covid-19 safety measures in place.

We will be running regular working parties as follows:

The first Tuesday of the month: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

The third Saturday of the month: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

If you would like to attend one of the working parties, please email Linda at greeningchinnor@gmail.com to book a place.

24 April 2020

This weekend would have seen our second Blossom Open Day at the orchard. Unfortunately due to the current restrictions, we are unable to go ahead with the event.

To help brighten up the day and to show the amazing transformation of the orchard since the renovation started in January 2019, we are publishing The Donkey Lane Photo Albums. This is a collection of photographs taken by one of our intrepid volunteers, Keith Webley, who has been documenting the evolution of the orchard since we started. The albums can be viewed in any order but I would suggest that you start in chronological order and just see the amazing work of our volunteers and the transformation of the orchard into a lovely, tranquil space.

To find our gallery click here

15 February 2019

It is not often we are lost for words but we have to confess to being completely speechless (almost) regarding the change that has already been made to the Community Orchard by the dedicated group of volunteers during the recent working parties.

Most of the fruit trees are clear of Ivy as far up as can been reached. We have probably cleared about 70% of our planned first stage. As we can now see the fruit trees properly, it is obvious that these are the trees in the original photographs standing in the garden of the cottages. Some of the trees are a bit wobbly (but then so would you be if you had been standing for 150 years).

Our objective is for every fruit tree to have it’s own 'Management Plan' with the first stage being to remove the Ivy and brambles and to provide support in the form of crucks. We have made a significant start on this. With respect to the underground den that was onsite, when we turned up for our first working party on Saturday 9th February, we found that some of the den’s supporting timbers had been removed and with the the recent spell of wet weather, the roof had collapsed. Later in the year we will have a small working party to ensure this area is made completely safe. The tree house is still standing. We carried out a structural survey and were disappointed to see that the floor is completely rotten and dangerous to use. To ensure the safety of our volunteers we removed  a few insecure timbers. A plan for the tree house will be made at our next meeting. The priority is to ensure that none of our children or grandchildren come to any harm from the structure and perhaps plan for a safe replacement that will give maximum, safe community enjoyment.

Many of you will be aware the orchard has it’s very own plum. We always thought this was a local species only found between Chinnor and Bledlow. However research suggests that this plum is the one solitary specimen growing in the wild. The good news is that now the area surrounding the plum has been cleared, it seems that it has a twin! We're not sure yet if they are Siamese or identical but we are sure that experts will soon be able to rule definitively on the subject.

As this area has been relatively undisturbed for many years, we are very sensitive to the wildlife inhabitants, from small to large, that live there and we are starting to log anything seen or located. We have a wildlife activity book on site during the working parties. A wildlife habitat is being created around the boundaries using some of the dead wood found and the vegetation waste being cleared. Habitat piles are also being made in some of the corners. Any artefacts or things of interest from our forebears will also be logged.

Some numbers

29 different individuals volunteered for 45 sessions (some came for more than one day) over three days for an average of three hours per day. This gave us 135 volunteer hours. You can see why we have achieved a lot

31 bags of rubbish were collected and sent for sorting into recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Unfortunately this is still an ongoing task

We will be shortly publishing some pictures and our next working party dates. We anticipate that this first disruptive stage will be finished by the end of March to minimise any disturbance to nesting birds.

Social History

We would like to explore the social history of this site and if there is anyone who is interested and would like to join us or if there are villagers who have photos, postcards or memories of the site - we would be very keen to speak to you.