Rockness
In 2008, the community of Rockness bought a ¼ acre site, with the help of a National Lottery Awards for All grant. South facing and on a fairly steep slope, the site is known as Stan’s Patch, a reference to Stan Short who used to live below the site and had gardened it, but by then it had been neglected for many years and was dominated by several large sycamores and overgrown with brambles.
Many hands make light work
Many hands make light work, so residents and friends came together and used their collective skill and energy to begin a transformation, supported by the Stroud Valleys Project, Ruskin Mill and many others. Steps were hewn from the steel hillside to enable safe access, scrub was cleared to reveal three veteran apple trees and the perimeter was planted with a native mixed hedgerow.
One of the founders of the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust, Dave Kaspar, suggested how an orchard could be created and then hosted a grafting workshop at Day’s Cottage and all 16 grafted trees were successful and were planted the following spring.
The main community event each year is our apple day where we share tea and cake, play games and operate our amazing human fruit machine. Apples are milled with a fantastic bicycle scratter, then pressed to make pure, fresh apple juice that tastes of apples.
To simplify the management and administration of the not-for-profit company that had been set up to acquire the land originally, the land was gifted to the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust on April Fool’s Day, 2020; annual reports and accounts no longer have to be prepared and filed and the Trust’s liability insurance covers Stan’s Patch, too, saving us money. It allows us to focus on our orchard, which continues to flourish; in summer it is awash with wildflowers and it’s an oasis of biodiversity – we counted 56 different varieties of moth on our ecology day. We think it’s a jewel.
We meet most Sunday mornings, people from Rockness, as well as further afield, Nailsworth and environs. As well as our fruit trees we cultivate raised beds and manage our fruit cages. A fire in our brazier keeps us warm on cold days, as do tea and cake. All are welcome … and if you’re thinking of joining us or would like more information please email fiona.valentine@glosorchards.org
