Appeal for tree planting helpers in Bramley

By Grace Hills

St Peter’s Church on Hough Lane in Bramley has been awarded funding from the Coronation Orchard scheme, through Leeds City Council, to plant an orchard in a section of the church yard.

In October, the community was invited to an apple juicing day to hear about the plans for the creation of an orchard in the church grounds and to share their thoughts. 

The Great Bramley Apple Day took place outside St Peter’s Church and was well attended with young and old involved in making apple juice using a traditional apple scratter and press.

Alongside the juicing there were apple-related crafts and a chance to see the plans for the orchard. People could have their say by writing down their comments and chatting through any queries. There was also the opportunity to vote as to which type of fruit trees they’d like in the orchard. 

Scratting the apples with FruitWorks’ traditional machine

Edward Turner, 81, a lifelong resident of Bramley, wrote “just what we need” alongside others who wrote comments such as, “great idea, excited to help” and “best idea ever! All green space should be used to grow health-giving delicious food”.  

Grace Hills, a member of the St Peter’s congregation and a keen community gardener, said: “Making apple juice with the community was a great success and hopefully in a few years’ time, we’ll be using apples from our own orchard at a similar event.”

The scheme, which is funded by the Coronation Living Heritage Fund, will see thousands of trees planted to mark the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III, celebrating His Majesty’s passion for the environment.

The fund will enable local authorities to create green spaces and connect communities with nature as a permanent reminder of the Coronation, while helping meet the government’s targets to treble tree planting rates by the end of this Parliament and ensure that 16.5% of land area is under tree cover by 2050.

The Church of England’s vision is for local churches to be carbon neutral by 2030 and is encouraging churches to plant trees and think about how to use the land around its buildings to benefit the environment, nature and community.

Comments by the public on the proposed orchard.

Wild Card, a grassroots movement, is going one step further, challenging Britain’s biggest landowners to rewild their land before it’s too late. Their campaign, Rewild The Church, is focusing on the land The Church of England owns – an area of land three times the size of Birmingham. Alongside big names like Chris Packham, they are working together with Church groups to ask the Church of England to rewild 30% of their land by 2030.

An orchard on church land will help with this aim. Not only will it provide clean air and food for the residents of Bramley, it will also increase biodiversity in plant and insect life, as well as sequestering carbon. These are important things in the face of a future of food insecurity, biodiversity loss and increased climate change.

Grace Hills added: “The orchard is for the Bramley community, you don’t have to be a churchgoer to get involved. We’ll need lots of volunteers to help plant, water and prune the trees, so if you are interested in learning about fruit trees and helping with the community orchard, please come along to our planting day on Sunday, 12 January from 12.30pm- 2.30pm.”

Leeds City Council are collaborating with local fruit tree specialists, Fruit Works to deliver the work and to plant fruit trees to create orchards, with the successful community groups who received the funding, including Armley, Wortley, Chapeltown, Crossgates and Great Preston.

Look out for further details on St Peter’s Church social media pages (including cancellation due to weather) to get involved with planting the orchard on Sunday 12 January 2025. Everyone is welcome. No experience needed. All tools provided. 

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