Gloucestershire Orchard Trust

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Gloucestershire Orchard Trust

http://glosorchards.org/ Gloucestershire Orchard Trust is a charity that campaigns for the retention and restoration of traditional orchards in Gloucestershire.

If you have an enquiry please use the website enquiry form at https://glosorchards.org/home/contact/ rather than posting here on facebook!

02/05/2026

Jug handle?
Ox-bow lake?
How would you describe it?

Fruit trees come in all sorts of shape and size, but this is a rarety ... a branch reconnecting with another branch higher up the tree, forming a loop. It's an old, enormous Bramley tree, in Robinswood Hill, Gloucester. The Friends of Robinswood Hill have taken the old orchard under their wing and will begin to clear and restore the orchard, which has good views to the northwest, towards the Malvern Hills, and an abundance of birdsong. The Trust will, of course, help. We'll provide new trees to fill some of the gaps, offer advice and run are hoping, eventually, to run a pruning workshop there, all part and parcel of our work to conserve and celebrate Gloucestershire's orchards.

25/04/2026

Blossom pics are compulsory at this time of year.

Apple blossom is generally considered to be white, but can be tinged with pink to a greater or lesser extent. This particular blossom is of a rare Gloucestershire apple cultivar called Kill Boys and is more heavily pink in colour than most.

14/04/2026

Orchard outreach ... it looks as though the tree we rescued from the brambles at Hart's Orchard has survived the trauma, also survived the heavy pruning we inflicted on it, and has burst into blossom, a pleasing reward for our efforts.

01/03/2026

A couple of pics from our orchard outreach event at Hart's Orchard in Bollow, where a group of volunteers and trustees helped continue the work to restore and revive an old, somewhat neglected orchard.

At the start of the day, the pictured tree was totally engulfed in brambles but thanks to Steve Mason's perseverance the tree is now a free-standing entity of the orchard, albeit at a slightly wonky, jaunty angle. To help the tree stay upright, we then pruned it, removing one entire branch and trimming back the others. It'll take another 2 or 3 years of pruning to get the tree back in better shape - it's not advisable to remove more than a third of the wood in any one year - but the process has begun.

Thanks to our hosts for providing the volunteer crew with an excellent lunch - two types of soup with homemade bread, then a choice of quiches - and thanks to the volunteer crew for achieving so much in just 1 day.

01/02/2026

Our pruning workshop ...
.. was very well attended, with 20+ people seemingly eager - or willing, at least - to listen to our Chair of Trustees talk about the skill of pruning apple trees.

We tackled formative pruning of younger trees in the Gloucestershire apple collection, as well as restorative pruning of mature trees in the adjacent Long Tyning orchard. These are practical, hands-on, sessions, so it's an introductory spiel, followed by an exhortation and encouragement for participants to try for themselves. There is an art to pruning fruit trees, but it's one best learned, we think, by trying out for oneself.

We are running another pruning workshop on Saturday 7th March, at the Orchard Centre in Hartpury. Again, this session will be FREE TO OUR MEMBERS ... and more details will appear on this grid, on our website and on Eventbrite in due course.

21/12/2025

"A volunteer is worth 3 pressed men."

"Many hands make light work."

Record numbers attended our final volunteer day at Longney and they proved the wisdom of both these sayings, as testified by the BEFORE and AFTER pictures; an enormous, dense patch of bramble and scrub was there one moment, gone the next.

A big thank you to all who participated, also to those who provided pre-Christmas victuals in the form of mince pies, gingerbread, apple & cinnamon cake ... and the usual good company, conversation, enthusiasm ...

We usually meet on the 4th Saturday of each month, but on this occasion were there a week early. If you'd like to know more please get in touch - contact details on our website.

22/11/2025

',Tis the season of cider making ...
.. and this year the Trust increased its production from 20 to 30 litres, apples from our orchards at Longney, milled and pressed on site = zero food miles ... and a BIG THANK YOU to our volunteers who contributed to this 50% increase, making us (probably) one of the fastest growing cider-makers in the country. Big trees from little acorns.

We were even more delighted to know that some of our regular volunteers have conspired to get together to make their own batch of cider (pictures 3 and 4), having constructed their own press. We're really chuffed to know that as a result of the volunteer groups we organise, friendships are being formed, fruit is being appreciated, cider is being made ... long may it continue.

And we all look forward to tasting the fruits of our labour!

-making

30/10/2025

Harvest at Henley Bank.

We welcomed some of our regular volunteers as well as people from the local community to our perry pear orchard in Brockworth a couple of weekends ago, to help with the harvest. We gathered about 200kgs, of three varieties, Butt, Suffolk Thorn (pictured) and Autumn Bergamot. It may not sound like a huge quantity, but given that 2 years ago it was a struggle just to gain access to the orchard and the idea of gathering fruit was a flight of fancy, it shows the progress we're making in restoring the orchard.

There's still a lot to do and we hope to build local community involvement in tge orchard and to that end we plan on planting some Gloucesrershire cultivars of apple and plum, tree which will, in time, provide delicious fruit for domestic use.

25/09/2025

Malvern Autumn Show

For the first time for many years, the Trust has taken a stand at the Three Counties Showground to display Gloucestershire's apple varieties, including those connected to the county that may have originated elsewhere ... and we're pleased to say that we've managed to source every single cultivar we were looking to display.

In doing so, we received invaluable help along the way, so thanks to John Teiser of the Marcher Apple Network for travelling to North Herefordshire to obtain Kempley Red from the only fruiting tree of that variety that we know of (the trees we've propagated for planting closer to home have yet to bear fruit). Thanks, too, to Jim Chapman of the Hartbury Heritage Trust, for letting us scour his orchards for fruit, also to Days Cottage for supplying much better examples of fruit than we were able to find elsewhere.

So, if you're visiting the Malvern Autumn Show over the next 3 days, Friday 26th to Sunday 28th Sepember, then please pop in to say 'hello' ... we're in the Hop and Orchard pavilion, row 7 of the showground ... and in the same tent as some truly outstanding cider-makers, if you needed further encouragement

shows

06/08/2025

Date for your diary ... it will be PLUM DAY at the Orchard Centre, Hartpury, this coming Saturday, from midday to 7 pm.

Not only will there be a display of c. 80+ different varieties of plum - and what could beat that as a reason to go? - but there will also be tea and cake available, and the tap room will be open for the sale of perry and cider.

19/06/2025

Not too late! Still a few places left on our scything refreshee course, bookabkle on Eventbrite. Please join us ... oyr events are informal, informative and entertaining and we would love to see you in our orchards!

Address

Reservoir Road
Gloucester
GL4 6

Website

https://glosorchards.org/

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