Heritage

 

 

Our project is funded by the heritage lottery to grow heritage and heirloom varieties, encourage people to learn traditional skills and to conserve local wildlife, thus helping to keep all of these things alive so that future generations can enjoy them.

 

Since January 2014 when the project began, we have provided learning opportunities including building a cob oven, scything, preparing herbal remedies, willow weaving, saving seed, preserving fruit and vegetables, traditional orchard care and the growing of organic food. This year, we will be offering some of these opportunities again, as well as green woodworking and beekeeping workshops.  Please see our 'Events' page for more details.

 

Swaefas Swale, the community orchard, is managed in a traditional way to encourage local heritage in the form of wildlife. Scythes as opposed to machinery are used to cut the sward between the trees, which makes it easier to be selective about which plants are left as well as being less noisy and smelly! More plant species are being introduced to the orchard through regular cutting, planting and the sowing of seeds. We hope that this will also result in an increase of insect, bird and mammal species over the coming years.