Discover Nature
Orchards
In quiet corners of the Severn Vale, lichen-covered apple trees stand as reminders of a time when virtually every farm had a mixed orchard close to the farmhouse.
Sadly, about 75% of Gloucestershire’s old orchards have been lost in the last fifty years and, with them, many local varieties of fruit.
Despite this, orchards remain a distinctive feature of the area and, crucially, they provide an important wildlife habitat, partly because herbicide use is rare.
A Forgotten Landscape surveyed 88 orchards with the help of trained volunteers, bringing four back to their former glory and creating three new ones.
